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General Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

From a Woodcut 



Edward Fitzgerald 
Beale 

A Pioneer in the Path of Empire 
1822-1903 



By 

Stephen Bonsai 



With 17 Illustrations 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 
Ube ftnicfterbocfter press 
1912 



r6n5 






Copyright, iqi2 

BY 

TRUXTUN BEALE 



Ube finickerbocher pteee, 'Mew ]|?ocft 



£CI.A;n41 4S 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

EDWARD FITZGERALD BEALE, whose 
life is outlined in the following pages, was 
a remarkable man of a type we shall never 
see in America again. A grandson of the gallant 
Truxtun, Beale was bom in the Navy and his early 
life was passed at sea. However, he fought with 
the army at San Pasqual and when night fell upon 
that indecisive battlefield, with Kit Carson and 
an anonymous Indian, by a daring journey through 
a hostile country, he brought to Commodore 
Stockton in San Diego, the news of General 
Kearny's desperate situation. 

Beale brought the first gold East, and was truly, 
in those stirring days, what his friend and fellow- 
traveller Bayard Taylor called him, "a pioneer in 
the path of empire." Resigning from the Navy, 
Beale explored the desert trails and the moimtain 
passes which led overland to the Pacific, and later 
he surveyed the routes and built the wagon roads 
over which the mighty migration passed to people 
the new world beyond the Rockies. 

As Superintendent of the Indians, a thankless 
office which he filled for three years, Beale initiated 
a policy of honest dealing with the nation's wards 



iv Introductory Note 

which would have been even more successful than 
it was had cordial unfaltering support always been 
forthcoming from Washington. 

Beale was, rare combination! both pioneer and 
empire builder. He was also a man of catholic 
interests. He was beloved by Carson and by 
Benton, a scout and a senator, and was esteemed 
by men as widely apart as his life-long friend Gen- 
eral Grant and the Emperor Francis Joseph, at 
whose court Beale represented all that was best in 
his native land. 

As a boy the writer worshipped the great Indian 
fighter "Who won California" and held it against 
innumerable Mexican lancers, and who had 
brought home the gold in the Patent Office we used 
to gaze at with wide-open eyes on Saturday after- 
noons; but, for whatever intimate touches the 
following pages may reveal the reader is indebted, 
as is the writer, to Rear-Admiral John H. Upshur 
and to Rear- Admiral David B. Harmony, Beale's 
distinguished shipmates, to Hon. Truxtun Beale, 
a son of the pioneer and of California, and to the 
late Mr. Harris Heap who wrote the narrative of 
Beale's journey across the plains in 1853. 

Stephen Bonsal. 
Bedford, N. Y., January 6, 1912. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I — Early Days 

Birth and Parentage — Born in the Navy — A Fistic Encounter 
and its Consequences — A Jacksonian Midshipman at Four- 
teen — On the Schoolship Independence — Passed Midshipman 
and Ordered to the Congress 44 as Acting Master — Secret 
Mission for Commodore Stockton — Tradition of the Service 
— British Designs on California ...... 

Chapter II — ^The War with Mexico 

Secretary Bancroft's Instructions to Commodore Stockton upon 
Taking Command of the Pacific Squadron — The Situation in 
California — The Army of the West at Fort Leavenworth — 
General Wool — Kearny at Santa Fe — The Meeting with Kit 
Carson — Kearny Pushes on to California — Battle of San Pas- 
qual — Beale Commands the Guns — Mexicans in Overwhelm- 
ing Force — Kearny in Straits — Beale and Carson Undertake/' 
Desperate Journey Bringing News to Stockton — The Relief 
Column — Benton's Speech in the Senate — His Tribute to 
Beale — Beale's First Visit to San Francisco Bay in the Fall of 
1846 — His Letter to Fremont ...... 

Chapter III — With Carson on the Gila 

Beale the Hero of San Pasqual — Commodore Stockton's Des- 
patches and the Praise of his Brother Officers — Beale and 
Carson Set Out across the Plains to Carry the News to Wash- 
ington — General Sherman's Picture of Carson — Adventures 
on the Gila — Dogged by Indians for Eight Hundred Miles on 
the Central Plains — "Them's Arrers" — Lions in St. Louis 
and Washington — A Short Holiday — Back across the Plains 
Again — Incredible Hardships in the Gila Country — Beale Dis- 



vi Contents 



covers or Divines the Santa Fe Trail — The Rev. Colton as Al- 
calde of Monterey — The Milch Cow " Eschews " to the Court 
— Sutter's Mill-Race and the Golden Sands — Conditions of 
Life in El Dorado — The Rev. Colton's Complaint and Prayer- 
ful Hope — Beale as a Caricaturist — The Alleged Resentment 
of Catesby Jones — Story of Gold in California — Competition 
between the Army and Navy to Get the News East — 
Beale's Views on the Gold Question ..... 25 

Chapter IV — Beale Brings First Gold East 

Beale's Daring Journey across Mexico with the First Gold — 
Gente de Camino — Mexico City and Minister Clifford — Fate 
of Beale's Guide — Senators Foote and Benton Hear the Won- 
derful Story — William Carey Jones's Account of Journey in 
National Intelligencer — Beale Introduced to the United States 
Senate — Wise " Stay-at-Homes " Show Incredulity — Beale 
Walks down Wall Street with Mr. Aspinwall — P. T. Barnum 
Wants to Exhibit the Gold — But Half the Treasure is Fash- 
ioned into an Engagement Ring — Courting at Chester — 
Ammen's Letter to the Young Argonaut — On the Trail 
Again — Letter from Big Timber — Beale's Description of his 
Route across the Continent — Along the Thirty-fifth Parallel — 
Old Trail Develops into Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail- 
road — Chronological Table of Beale's Early Travels — Mar- 
riage with Miss Edwards — Arctic Expedition Proposed — 
Letters from Captain Lynch and Commodore Maury — 
Bayard Taylor Dedicates his Book on California to Beale — 
Beale Resigns from the Service — He Retrieves the Business 
Venturesof Commodore Stockton and Mr. Aspinwall . . 42 

Chapter V — First Steps in our Indian Policy 

Lieutenant Beale Appointed by President Fillmore General Super- 
intendent of Indian Aflfairs for California and Nevada — Con- 
gress Appropriates Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars 
to Carry into Effect Beale's Plans — Indian Tribes to be Col- 
onized and Protected on Reservations — Beale's Journey from 
the Valley of the Mississippi to California along the Central 
Route as Described by Himself and Mr. Heap — Westport, 
Kansas, and the "Stirrup Cup" — Fort Atkinson and Pike's 
Peak and the Huerfano River — Plains of the Arkansas and 
Fort Massachusetts ........ 64 



Contents vii 



Chapter VI — Across the Plains in '53 

From Coochatope Pass to Grand River — A Taste of Mountain 
Sheep — The Great Divide — Murderous Work of Utah In- 
dians — Arrival at the Uncompagre River — The Swollen Fork 
of the Colorado — Raft Built and Abandoned — The Slough of 
Despond — Building a Canoe — Forlorn Plight of Pack Mules 
— Shipwreck and Inventory of Losses — Expedition Separated 
by River but United by Common Misfortunes — Gallant Swim- 
mers — Beale Decides to Send to Taos in New Mexico to 
Replenish his Supplies— Mr. Heap's Journey to the Settle- 
ments — A Miserable Night — "Peg-Leg" and the Venerable 
Utah — The Lonely Squaw — Arrival at Taos — Mr. Leroux and 
Supplies ......... 84 

Chapter VII — Beale's Separate Journal 

Hunting Prowess of the Delaware — Indians Appear in Camp — 
Banquet of Venison and Boiled Corn — The Beautiful Valley 
of the Savoya — The Indians Race their Horses — A Taste of 
Rough Riding — The Return of Mr. Heap . . . .112 

Chapter VIII — On the Verge of Hostilities 

Shaking Hands with Utahs — Picturesque Encampment on the Big 
Uncompagre — Lieutenant Beale and the "Capitanos" — A 
Stiff Demand for Presents — A Pair of Game-cocks — Crossing 
the Fallen River — Indians in Paint and Feathers — Beale's 
Ultimatum — The Delaware's Long Memory — Grand River 
Canyon — The Crossing — The Indians Attempt a Stampede — 
The Mormons near the Vegas of Santa Clara — Paragoona — 
Brigham Young — Why the Mormons Settled at Parawan — 
Little Salt Lake — Strict Vigilance over Strangers — Colonel 
Smith — The Practice of Polygamy — Views on the System of 
" Spiritual Wives " ........ 122 

Chapter IX — The Desert Journey 

The Mormon Wagon Trail — Joy of the Pah-Utahs — Famous 
Horse Thieves — The Traffic in Children — Rio de la Virgen — 
The First Jornada — Muddy Creek and the Spring of Gaetan — 
Pah-Utah Billingsgate — The End of a Mormon Explorer — 
The Second Jornada — Twenty Hours without Water — The 



viii Contents 



Oasis of Tio Meso — The Mohaveh River — The Valley of the 
Santa Ana — San Bernardino Mountain — The Settlements and 
Los Angeles — Benton's Letters and Congratulations . . 147 

Chapter X — Indian Affairs 

State of the Indians in the Pacific Coast Territories — Indians Held 
to Peonage by the Whites — Fifteen Thousand Die of Starva- 
tion — Spaniards and Mexicans as Slave Drivers — Beale's Plan 
of Protected Reservations for the Nation's Wards — Mr. 
Sebastian Supports the Plan in the Senate, and Secures the 
Desired Appropriation — Beale's Indian Policy Endorsed by 
the Military and Civil Officials in California — General 
Hitchcock's Letter — Opposition of Indian Agents — Mas- 
sacres in Shasta and Scott Valley — General Rising of the 
Indians Feared — Beale Commissioned Brigadier -General — ■, 
As Peace Plenipotentiary Brings the Warlike Tribes to 
Terms — Beale's Defence of the Modocs . . . .174 

Chapter XI — The Forgotten Camel Corps 

Transportation Problems of the Fifties — To Provision Army 
Posts in Southwest, Beale Suggests Camel Trains to the War 
Department — Enthusiastic Reception of the Novel Idea by 
Secretary Jefferson Davis — David Dixon Porter Sent to Tunis 
and Syria to Secure the Camels — Camel Corps in the Scinde 
Campaign — Beale's Report to the War Department of his 
Camel Journey from San Antonio to El Paso — San Francisco 
Papers Enthusiastic over the New Beast of Burden — Davis 
Resigns from the War Department and the Camels are Neg- 
lected — Beale Herds the Survivors on his Ranch — A Camel 
Tandem — Value of Beale's Journals to Future Historians of 
the Southwestern and Pacific States . . . .198 

Chapter XII — The Wagon Road Survey from Fort 
Defiance to California 

General Beale's Report to the Secretary of War — From Zuni to the 
Banks of the Little Colorado — Praise of the Camels, Especi- 
ally their Swimming — Extracts from Beale's Journal — 
Howard's Spring, Famous for Indian Massacres — Water 
Shortage — Mount Buchanan and Mount Benton — Indian Ad- 
venture of a Geologist — Captured Indians Retained as Guides 



Contents ix 



to the Colorado — First Sight of the Sierra Nevada — Winter at 
Fort Tejon — The Return Journey — First Steamer on the 
Colorado — Last Entry in the Journal — "We Have Tested the i^ 
Value of the Camel, Marked a New Road to the Pacific and 
Travelled Four Thousand Miles" 211 

Chapter XIII — The Journey along the 35TH Parallel 

Beale's Official Report — Railway Surveys from Fort Smith, Ar- 
kansas, to the Colorado — Choteau's and the Valley of the 
Canadian — The Rio del Norte at Albuquerque — Advantages 
of this Route for Wagon or Railroads — Extracts from Beale's 
Journal — Inscription Rock — Breakfast of Wild Cat — A Visit 
to Zuni — Advice to the Chief — "A Merrie Jest of Ye White 
Man and Ye Indian" — Indian Rumors and a Treaty of Peace 
— Civil War and the Close of the Wagon Road Period — 
"Wanderer" Writes about it from Gum Springs to the Phila- 
delphia Press — The Pacific Railroad as a Government Project 
— Santa Fe Traders — Praise of Beale as Pioneer and Road 
Builder 230 

Chapter XIV — General Beale as Surveyor-General 

Lincoln Appoints Beale Surveyor-General of California and 
Nevada — Plans of the Secessionists — Beale Persuades Lincoln 
not to Enforce the Draft in California — Weathering the Crisis 
— Beale's Letter to the President Volunteering for Service in 
the Field — His Views on the Cause and Probable Conse- 
quences of Civil War Published by the Philadelphia Press — 
"The Fate of the Commons of the World Depends Upon the 
Issue of the Struggle" — Beale's Letter to Secretary Chase 
Favoring Acquisition of Lower California by United States 
— Chase's Reply — Letters from the Mexican General Vega — 
Beale's Sympathies With the Liberal Though Fugitive Govern- 
ment across the Border — Grant and Beale Contrive to Send 
Muskets to Juarez — President Diaz's Recognition in after 
Years of Beale's Assistance in this the Hour of Need . . 256 

Chapter XV — Life on the Tejon Rancho 

Beale Resigns as Surveyor-General and Retires to Tejon — Pur- 
chases more Land from Absentee Landlords — Description of 
the Bakersfield Country when Kern County Was a Wilder- 



Contents 



ness — The Spring, the Fig-trees and the Live Oaks — A Rodeo 
— Robber Bands — Nearest Justice 150 Miles Away! — Sale of 
Sheep in San Francisco — Mexicans Who Panned for Gold 
Before the Forty-niners — Lincoln and Beale Anecdotes — 
"Monarch of all he Surveys" — Charles Nordhoff's Visit to 
Tejon — Description of Life there — His Praise of what Gen- 
eral Beale Had Accomplished — Kit Carson's Ride by Joaquin 
Miller — Beale Falls Foul of the Poet — Sad Scenes on the 
Rancho .......... 272 

Chapter XVI — Last Years 

General Beale Purchases the Decatur House — Its Distinguished 
Occupants and Ghost Story — Beale's Political Activity — His 
Untiring Efforts to Help the Negro — Appointed by Grant 
Minister to Austria — Newspaper Comment in California — A 
Bill of Sale from Slavery Days — Awkward Diplomatic Sit- 
uation — The Emperor and Count Andrassy — Friendship of 
Grant and Beale — Their Correspondence Published — Arthur 
Fails to Appoint Beale Secretary of the Navy — Grant's Re- 
sentment — Beale Ends the Grant-Blaine Feud — Last Days 
— Beale's Death — Scenes in Washington and on the Tejon 
Rancho .......... 291 

Index 307 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGB 



General Edward Fitzgerald Beale . Frontispiece 

From a Woodcut 

Commodore Robert F. Stockton . . . 8 

From an Engraving by H. B. Hall 
After a Painting on Ivory by Newton in 1840 

The City AND Harbor OF Rio de Janeiro . , 10'^ 

From a Lithograph 

The Harbor of Valparaiso . . . , 20 ^ 

From a Lithograph 

The City of Lima . . . . 30 ^ 

From a Lithograph 

The Harbor of San Francisco in November, 1849 38 

From a Lithograph of 1850 

Mazatlan 42^ 

From a Lithograph of 1850 

The Volcano Diggings 60 

From a Lithograph of 1850 

General Beale's First Camp in the Sangre de 

Cristo Mountains . . . . .76"^ 

From a Lithograph 

Grand Riverj below the Junction of the Uncom- i^ 

fagre ........ 80 

From a Lithograph 



xu 



Illustrations 



The Lower Bar, Mokelumne River . 

From a Lithograph of 1850 

The Method of Crossing Lacuna Creek 

From a Lithograph 

A View on Grand River in 1852 . 

From a Lithograph 

San Francisco in 1846 . . 

From a Lithograph 

Sacramento City, from the South, in 1849 

From a Lithograph 

Portsmouth Square, San Francisco . 

From a Lithograph in 1850 

Kit Carson Statue .... 

Frederick MacMonnies, Sculptor 

A View of Monterey .... 

From a Lithograph of 1850 

Kit Carson's Gun . . . 



86 
90 
128 
aoo 
214 
240 
270 
278 
288 



/ 



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Edward Fitzgerald Beale 



EDWARD FITZGERALD BEALE 



CHAPTER I 
Early Days 

Beale's Birth and Parentage — Bom in the Navy — ^A Fistic 
Encounter and its Consequences — A Jacksonian Mid- 
shipman at Fourteen— On the Schoolship Independ- 
ence — Passed Midshipman and Ordered to the Congress 
44 as Acting Master — Secret Mission for Commodore 
Stockton — Tradition of the Service — British Designs 
on California. 

EDWARD FITZGERALD BEALE was bom 
on his father's estate in the District of 
Columbia on February 4, 1822. He was 
the son of Paymaster George Beale' who served 
with distinction under McDonough in the Battle 
of Lake Champlain and of Emily the youngest 
daughter of Commodore Truxtun of the Constel- 
lation. As the son and the grandson of distin- 
guished naval officers, young Beale had what was 
regarded in the old Navy as a prescriptive right 
to enter the service and this was also his wish from 
earliest years. With the advent of Jackson and 

* See note on next page. 



2 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

with Democracy installed in power as never before 
since the foundation of the Government, the pre- 
scriptive rights of the old naval families were, how- 
ever, being brushed aside and the claims and hopes 
of young "Ned" Beale might also have been over- 
looked but for a fortunate and characteristic inci- 
dent which I shall relate as it is recorded in the 
family archives. 

The boys at the Capital, where the Beales 
spent their winters at this time, were much given 
to politics, and their ranks were divided by alleg- 
iance to antagonistic statesmen. 

Fortunately for himself, our hero at this moment 
was a stalwart Jacksonian. There were many 
adherents of Adams at the Capital and after hot 
disputes it was agreed to have all political differ- 
ences settled by the ancient test of battle. 

"Ned" Beale was chosen by the Jacksonians, 
while the Adamites were represented by a boy 
named Evans, who has since become a distin- 
guished citizen of Indiana. A day or two later, 
the fistic encounter took place under a long white 

Navy Department, 

Feb. lo, 1820. 
Sir: 

In compliance with a resolution of Congress, I am directed by the 
President to present to you a silver medal as a testimony of the high 
sense entertained by Congress of your gallantry, good conduct, and 
services in the decisive and splendid victory gained on Lake Champlain 
on the nth of September, 1814, over a British squadron of superior 
force. 

Yours most respectfully. 

Smith Thompson, Secretary of the Navy. 
To George Beale, Esq., Paymaster U. S. Navy. 



Early Days 3 

arch which at that time marked the southern 
entrance to the grounds of the White House. 
While the battle raged and the enthusiastic spec- 
tators shouted encouragement to their respective 
champions, a tall figure appeared on the scene, 
scattered the boys, and seizing Beale by the collar 
asked him what he was fighting for. He replied 
that he was fighting for Jackson and that his 
opponent, the Adams boy, had expressed a poor 
opinion of the President's politics and personality. 

"I am Jackson," said the newcomer. "I never 
forget the men or boys who are willing to fight for 
me, but of course I do not wish them to do it all 
the time. Now put on your coats." 

Several years now elapsed which Beale spent 
at Georgetown College, but when he reached his 
fourteenth year, the desire to enter the Navy 
became overwhelming. One afternoon he called 
at the White House with his mother to see General 
Jackson and put in an application for a midship- 
man's warrant. Mrs. Beale told her story, insisting 
upon the fact that her boy was the son and the 
grandson of men who had served their country 
and had been wounded in battle. 

Jackson listened with courtesy and with interest, 
but seemed somewhat uncertain as to how he 
should act upon the request. Suddenly the boy 
interrupted his mother and said, "Mother, let me 
speak to General Jackson in my own behalf." 
He then approached the General, in a moment 
reminding him of the fight and the promise he 



4 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

had made, at least by implication, to serve him 
should the opportunity present. Without a 
word, General Jackson tore off the back of a 
letter lying near him (this was before the days 
of envelopes) and wrote to the Secretary of the 
Navy, "Give this boy an immediate warrant," 
and handed it over to Mrs. Beale. A few hours 
later, Ned Beale's name was on the Navy list 
and soon he was on his way to the receiving ship 
at Philadelphia, which then served as a Naval 
School. 

The Widow Beale now returned with her trium- 
phant boy to Chester, Pa., when suddenly the 
problem presented itself, in what guise should the 
youngster make his first appearance at the Naval 
School? She called in her kinsmen, the Porters 
and the Farraguts, who both were neighbors at 
Greenbank on the Delaware, and at their sugges- 
tion Aunt Polly was called in. Aunt Polly was 
well known in Chester as an impoverished gentle- 
woman who had seen better days. She did needle- 
work, and it was thought that with care and by the 
advice of several of the young officers of the family, 
who were at home on leave, she could bring 
together something resembling a uniform, and 
indeed a most wonderful coat was produced, which 
was fitted out with the buttons of the great Truxtun, 
large metal buttons about five times as large as 
those which were ordinarily worn in this day. In 
this guise, three days later, Beale presented him- 
self on board the receiving ship. His future mess- 



Early Days 5 

mates made great fun of the wonderful coat. 
Many fights ensued, and as a result, the treasured 
heirlooms, the buttons which Truxtun had worn, 
it is said, on the occasion of his famous battle 
when in command of the Constellation^ disap- 
peared. The essential had been achieved, how- 
ever, and "Ned" Beale had fought his way into 
the Navy. 

Beale's career on the schoolship Independence 
was creditable and gave promise of his later per- 
formance. Before he was sixteen, he had twice 
risked his life in saving from drowning the lives of 
others ; he was regarded as pugnacious by his class- 
mates and by his teachers but not excessively so 
for a midshipman who owed his appointment to 
the personal selection of Andrew Jackson. Beale 
made a cruise to the West Indies on the Porpoise 
and another to the Mediterranean on the Ohio. 
Returning to the Naval School in Philadelphia he 
faced his examinations bravely, was commended 
for seamanship and his ability to write good lucid 
English, and then received his commission as 
Passed Midshipman. 

In August, 1845, Beale was ordered to the frig- 
ate Congress 44 fitting out in Norfolk, Virginia, 
for the Pacific Coast. He was commissioned 
Acting Master, a grade since abolished, and now the 
boyish days were over, and the serious business 
of life began. 

We now approach an episode in Beale's life 
which is certainly somewhat imsatisfactory to the 



6 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

historian. Few youngsters have been entrusted 
with secret missions, still fewer have proved so 
reticent as to carry the secret to their grave, yet 
this was the case with our young Acting Master. 
Little is known of the episode beyond the 
general tradition in the service, of which I shall 
speak later, and for this I am indebted to Rear- 
Admiral Harmony and Rear-Admiral Upshur, 
Beale's shipmates, who happily survive. We must 
also do what we can with the information which the 
Reverend Walter Colton, the Chaplain of the Con- 
gress, supplied in his book descriptive of this cruise, 
which was published in New York in 1850 under 
the title of Deck and Port. One month out from 
Hampton Roads he makes this entry in his log: 

We discovered this morning a brig on our weather bow, 
standing down for us, and we hove to with our main topsail 
to the mast. She ran up Danish colors and in an hour 
hove to at a cable's length under our lee-quarter. We 
lowered a boat and boarded her. She proved to be the 
brig Maria, forty days out from Rio Grande in Brazil, and 
bound for Antwerp. The Captain wished to correct his 
reckoning, and well he might, for he was seven days out of 
his longitude. Mr. Beale, our second Master, took passage 
in her for the United States with despatches. It was 
arranged between him and the Captain of the brig that he 
should be put on board the first vessel that they might fall 
in with bound for an American port, and that if they fell in 
with none, that he should be landed at Dover, England. 

As a matter of fact, the Maria sailed for many 
weeks through an empty ocean, and without meet- 



Early Days 7 

ing a sail. Young Beale was finally landed some- 
where on the English coast. He went directly to 
London, and after a few weeks stay there proceeded 
to the United States. After twenty-four hours in 
Washington, he set out to rejoin his ship, which he 
finally overtook in Callao harbor in Peru on the 
8th of May. 

Neither the Beale papers nor the records of the 
Navy Department shed any light whatsoever upon 
the purpose of Beale's mission, or the purport of the 
despatches which he carried. It is merely stated 
that he arrived with information from Commodore 
Stockton who commanded the Congress and was 
going out to the Pacific Coast to take command 
of all the naval forces there. Stockton's orders 
were to do all within his power to prepare for what 
the inevitable conflict with Mexico meant. 

Beale never enlightened his family as to the 
details of this mission. He merely answered 
proudly when repeatedly questioned, "I was a 
bearer of secret despatches. Commodore Stockton 
never removed the seal of secrecy from my lips." 

The tradition in the service is that while still in 
the West Indies Commodore Stockton secured 
information in regard to the movements of a 
British squadron which he deemed of the greatest 
importance and detached Beale to carry the news 
to Washington. It must be borne in mind that at 
the time in many circles our British cousins were 
credited with a design to anticipate the course of 
our manifest destiny and to acquire California them- 



8 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

selves. When Stockton reached the Pacific Coast 
in the summer of 1845 with the return instructions 
which Beale brought him, covering the contingency 
of British intervention, Admiral Seymour was 
there with a large and powerful fleet. However, 
Seymour behaved in a very friendly manner, 
observed a waiting attitude, and never by word 
or action betrayed the fact that American annex- 
ation of the coveted territory was not agreeable to 
his Government. 




Commodore Robert F. Stockton 

From an Engraving l)y H. B. Hall 
After a painting on ivory by Newton, in 1840 



CHAPTER II 

The War with Mexico 

Secretary Bancroft's Instructions to Commodore Stockton 
upon Taking Command of the Pacific Squadron — 
The Situation in California — The Army of the West 
at Fort Leavenworth — General Wool — Keamy at 
Santa Fe — The Meeting with Kit Carson — Keamy 
Pushes on to California — Battle of San Pasqual — 
Beale Commands the Guns — Mexicans in Over- 
whelming Force — Kearny in Straits — Beale and 
Carson Undertake Desperate Journey Bringing News 
to Stockton — The Rehef Column — Benton's Speech 
in the Senate — His Tribute to Beale — Beale's First 
Visit to San Francisco Bay in the Fall of 1846 — His 
Letter to Fremont. 

THE purpose of the Administration at this 
juncture and the situation in Mexico is well 
described in the instructions of Hon. George 
Bancroft, the historian, then Secretary of the Navy, 
to Commodore Stockton when this distinguished 
officer was on the point of sailing from Norfolk, Va., 
on the Congress to take command of the Pacific 
Squadron. 

It is the earnest desire of the President [writes Mr. 
Bancroft] to pursue the policy of peace, and he is anxious 

9 



10 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

that you and every part of your Squadron should be 
assiduously careful to avoid any act which could be con- 
strued into an act of aggression. Should Mexico, however, 
be resolutely bent on hostilities you will be mindful to 
protect the persons and the interests of citizens of the 
United States, and should you ascertain beyond a doubt 
that the Mexican Government has declared war against us, 
you will employ the force under your command to the best 
advantage. 

The Mexican ports on the Pacific are said to be open and 
defenceless. If you ascertain with certainty that Mexico 
has declared war against the United States you will at once 
blockade or occupy such ports as your force may admit. 

When Stockton reached the California coast, 
however, the situation was somewhat different. 
By June, 1846, war had been declared, and after 
driving the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de 
la Palma, General Taylor lay at Matamoras await- 
ing definite instructions from Washington which 
were slow in coming. 

In the meantime, a small force, somewhat pom- 
pously styled the Army of the West, assembled at 
Fort Leavenworth. It was commanded by Colonel 
Kearny who was instructed as soon as his prepa- 
rations were made to march into New Mexico, 
capture Santa Fe, and then proceed to California. 
The Army of the Centre, a much larger force under 
command of General Wool, had assembled at 
San Antonio, and was making ready to march into 
Chihuahua. 

Kearny, apparently oppressed by the fear that 
the war would be over before he had fairly placed 




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The War with Mexico ii 

his men in the field, left Leavenworth without 
awaiting the arrival of one thousand men that the 
State of Missouri had been called upon to furnish 
him. Kearny entered New Mexico, and meeting 
with little or no resistance, reached Santa Fe on the 
1 8th of August. After raising the flag over this 
ancient Spanish stronghold, he issued a proclama- 
tion absolving all the inhabitants of New Mexico 
from their allegiance to Mexico, and declaring the 
country an integral portion of the United States. 
Leaving word for the Missouri volunteers to join 
General Wool on his expedition into Chihuahua, 
Kearny now pushed on toward California, his 
force of regulars being reduced to three hundred 
dragoons. When eleven days out from Santa Fe, 
Kearny met Kit Carson, the famous scout, who 
with an escort of sixteen men was on his way to 
Washington with despatches. In these despatches 
Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont an- 
nounced the conquest of California by the forces 
under their command, and the institution of a form 
of civil government throughout the conquered ter- 
ritory. This information was correct in every sense 
of the word, but as Kearny's force was soon to ex- 
perience, the Calif ornians, that is the Mexicans of 
California, encouraged by the sight of the slender 
force which the United States then had on the 
Pacific Coast, revolted and took up arms. Igno- 
rant of the reception that was awaiting him, 
Kearny sent back East several squadrons, and 
taking Carson for his guide pushed on with the 



12 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

remainder to the Colorado River which he crossed, 
and marching northward reached the rancho of 
Agua Caliente on December 2d. 

Kearny had made Carson turn back with him, 
and had sent another scout on to Washington with 
the despatches because he desired the services of 
the best guide. It was not a wise step thus to 
interfere with the plans of his brother officers, and 
indeed Commodore Stockton was his superior. 
From this incident, in itself most trivial, dates 
the jealousy and the discord which fills the history 
of the United States for several years with that 
unseemly wrangling that is known under the name 
of the Stockton-Fremont-Kearny controversy. 
In the court-martial which Fremont demanded as 
a result of Kearny's criticisms, Lieutenant Beale 
was summoned as a witness. His testimony was 
most favorable to Fremont, and not helpful to 
Kearny's reputation. Here his connection with 
the unhappy affair ended, and there will be no 
further reference to the controversy in this narra- 
tive. 

From Agua Caliente, Colonel Kearny sent a 
letter to Commodore Stockton at San Diego 
announcing his approach, and three days later, 
when Kearny was but forty miles distant from 
the American naval base, he was met by a small 
force of volunteers under Captain Gillespie, and 
a score of bluejackets and a field-piece under Mid- 
shipman Beale. Though in anything but a secure 
position himself, Stockton had generously des- 



The War with Mexico 13 

patched this small force to apprise Kearny of the 
changed conditions, to warn him of the general 
revolt of the Calif ornians, and to assist him upon 
his now perilous march to the coast. The insur- 
gent Californians were at this time encamped at 
San Bernardo and Stockton contemplated attack- 
ing them when reinforced, or when Kearny was 
out of his dangerous position. 

The next news came through a Mr. Stokes, an 
English pioneer of California, who rode into San 
Diego and announced that Kearny had attacked 
the Californians and been worsted. Upon cross- 
examination Stokes admitted to the anxious com- 
modore that the battle was no concern of his, and 
that he had left the field while the result was in some 
doubt because he was convinced that his position as 
spectator was becoming dangerous. Great uncer- 
tainty and anxiety prevailed now at the naval base 
in San Diego harbor. It was heightened by the 
arrival of Alexis Godey, the famous scout, who had 
come through from San Pasqual, where the battle 
was fought, with a letter from Captain Turner upon 
whom the command had devolved when Kearny 
was wounded. Turner stated that eighteen men 
of the small force had been killed, and that there 
were many wounded. "General Kearny is 
among the wounded, but it is hoped not dan- 
gerously. Captains Monroe and Johnson, ist 
Dragoons, are killed, and Lieut. Hammond, ist 
Dragoons, is dangerously wounded." In conclu- 
sion. Turner asked that a considerable force be 



14 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

despatched to meet him on the road to San Diego, 
via Soledad and San Bernardo. 

Commodore Stockton was impressed by the 
gravity of this news and it led him to believe that 
the Calif omian- Mexicans were in much greater 
strength than had hitherto been reported. Godey 
came in with Turner's letter on December 7th, 
and Stockton was pushing preparations to march 
with his whole force, when on the afternoon of the 
9th an Indian who was known as a body-servant 
of Beale's came into the lines and reported that as 
a result of the battle Kearny's force was in des- 
perate straits. The Indian had hardly completed 
his story when Beale appeared with a more circum- 
stantial and intelligent report. "Kearny has been 
defeated," he said, "and his whole force is besieged 
on a small hill of rocks, or mesa, so completely 
surrounded by the enemy that it seems impossible 
for them to escape, or to long maintain their posi- 
tion." Beale also reported that the Calif omians 
were commanded by Don Andres Pico, the brother 
of the Governor, who had proven himself to be a 
very capable and energetic officer, and that 
Kearny's men, when he started out on his mission 
to obtain relief, had been reduced for some days 
to eating mule flesh, and had been without water 
for sixty hours. 

That was a busy night in San Diego. Beale 
was taken to the hospital where for days he was 
near death. While the young sailor was raving 
in the hospital, three hundred marines and blue- 



The War with Mexico 15 

jackets, sent by Stockton, pushed on through the 
dark night, and at dawn on the morning of the 
eleventh they reached their beleaguered country- 
men. The enemy, baffled of their prey, disap- 
peared with the mists of the morning. The march 
to the sea was resumed, and that night the little 
band of dragoons, that had looked down the very 
jaws of death, entered San Diego in safety. 

Benton's speech before the Senate describing 
the battle of San Pasqual and the resulting contro- 
versy between Stockton, Kearny, and Fremont, 
which practically disorganized the American Army 
and Navy for months to come, lasted I believe for 
four days and would I know fill several vol times of 
this size. Those were spacious days in the Senate. 
However, I cannot refrain from quoting the follow- 
ing paragraphs from the speech of the second day. 
They deal very intimately with our young hero 
and as The Missoiui Tribune stated to the open 
Senate, the information concerning Beale's heroism 
had been secured by him from Kit Carson who was 
at the time a guest in Benton's house. 

The four days' siege of the hill was the period of interest- 
ing events, which it was the duty of the General to have 
told, and which he suppressed to keep up his assumed 
character of victor. [Said Benton] First, there was the 
capture of the generous and daring Godey, with his two 
companions, in full view of Kearny's camp, after his 
adventurous run to San Diego, forty miles, to get aid for 
Kearny, and rapid return with the tidings that it was 
coming — tidings which he could not deliver because he was 
captured in view of Kearny by his besiegers. This fact had 



i6 Edward Fitzsferald Beale 



& 



to be suppressed, or the illusive cry of victory was at an 
end. It was suppressed — doubly suppressed — not noticed 
in the official report, and not confessed on interrogation 
before the court-martial. Then there was the chivalry of 
Don Andres Pico, worthy of CastiUan blood, in his conduct 
to his enemies. He treated the captured men with the 
utmost kindness — Godey as a brother, because he knew his 
renown, and honored heroism in his person. He inquired 
for the killed, and especially for Gillespie, whom he person- 
ally knew, and whom he had reported among the dead. 
Godey told him that he was not dead, but badly lanced, 
and that his servant in San Diego had made up some 
suppUes for him, which he had brought — sugar, coffee, tea, 
fresh linen. Pico put the supplies tmder a flag, and sent 
them to Gillespie, with an invitation to come to his camp, 
and receive better treatment than he could get on the dry 
rocks of San Bernardo; which he did, and was treated like a 
brother, returning when he pleased. The same flag carried 
a proposition to exchange prisoners. Kearny was alarmed 
at it, and saw nothing in it, or in the noble conduct to 
Gillespie, but a trick and a lure to perfidy. He was afraid 
to meet the flag. None of those for whom he reserved the 
honors of his report to the Government would venture to go. 
There was a lad present — one of those sent out by Stockton, 
a midshipman, the son of a widow in sight of this Capitol, 
the grandson of Truxtun, and no degenerate scion of that 
illustrious stock: his name, Beale. 

This lad volunteered to go and hear the propositions of 
exchange. Great was the alarm at his departure. A six- 
barrelled revolver, in addition to the sword, perfectly 
charged and capped, was stowed under his coat. Thus 
equipped, and well-mounted, he set out, protected by a flag 
and followed by anxious eyes and palpitating hearts. The 
little river San Bernardo was crossed at a plunging gallop, 
without a drink, though rabid for water both the horse and 
his rider, the rider having a policy which the horse could not 



The War with Mexico 17 

comprehend. Approaching a picket-guard, a young alfarez 
(ensign) came out to inquire for what purpose. The 
mission was made known, for Beale spoke Spanish; and 
while a sergeant was sent to the General's tent to inform 
him of the flag, a soldier was despatched to the river for 
water. "Hand it to the gentleman," was the Castilian 
command. Beale put the cup to his lips, wet them, in 
token of acknowledging a civility, and passed it back; as 
much as to say, "we have water enough on that hill." The 
alfarez smiled; and, while waiting the arrival of Don Andres, 
a courteous dialogue went on. "How do you like the 
country?" inquired the alfarez. "Delighted with it," 
responded Beale. "You occupy a good position to take a 
wide view." "Very good: can see all round." "I don't 
think your horses find the grass refreshing on the hill." 
"Not very refreshing, but strong." There was, in fact, no 
grass on the hill, nor any shrub but the one called wire- 
wood, from the close approximation of its twigs to that 
attenuated preparation of iron which is used for making 
knitting-needles, card-teeth, fishing-hooks, and such small 
notions; and upon which wood, down to its roots, the 
famished horses gleaned until compassionate humanity cut 
the halters, and permitted them to dash to the river, and 
its grassy bands, and become the steeds of the foe. 

By this time three horsemen were seen riding up, as all 
Califomians ride, at the rate the famous Gilpin rode when 
he made the last mile to Islington. Arriving within a 
certain distance, they halted, as only Cahfomians and 
Mamelukes can halt : the horse, at a pull of the bridle and 
lever bit, thrown back upon his haunches, fixed in his 
tracks, and motionless as the equestrian statue of Peter the 
Great. One of the three advanced on foot, unbuckling his 
sword and flinging it twenty feet to the right. The alfarez 
had departed. Seeing the action of the gentleman, Beale 
did the same — unbuckled his sword and flung it twenty 
feet to his right. The swords were then forty feet apart. 



1 8 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

But the revolver ! there it stuck under his coat — unmistak- 
able symptom of distrust or perfidy — sign of intended or 
apprehended assassination, and outlawed by every code of 
honor from the field of parley. A stolen sheep on his back 
would have been a jewelled star on his breast compared to 
the fixed fact of that assassin revolver under his midship- 
man's coat. Confusion filled his bosom; and for a moment 
honor and shame contended for the mastery. To try and 
hide it, or pull it out, expose it, and fling it away, was the 
question; but with the grandson of Truxtim it was a brief 
question. High honor prevailed. The clean thing was 
done. Abstracted from its close concealment, the odious 
tool was bared to the light, and vehemently dashed far 
away — the generous Cahfomian affecting not to have seen 
it. Then breathed the boy easier and deeper. 

The business of the parley was soon arranged. Pico 
had three Americans, Kearny had but one Califomian, 
sole fruit of the victory of San Pasqual. Pico offered to 
exchange man for man. Having but one man, Beale was 
anxious to redeem Godey, but would not name him, only 
described him. Pico smiled. "That is Godey," said 
he. "You can't have him; but he will be treated well. 
Describe another." Beale, supposing he was to be 
refused again, and so reduced to the one which he least 
wanted, described Burgess, a brave man, but the least 
intelligent of the three. Pico smiled again. "You shall 
have him," was the ready reply. "Send our man, and he 
shall redeem Burgess." It was done, and the exchange 
effected. 

The results of the astuteness of Pico, in gi\'ing up the 
least intelligent of his prisoners, was soon visible, and 
lamentably so, in the American camp. Burgess could tell 
nothing about the mission to Stockton — nothing about his 
response in answer to Godey 's mission — nothing about 
help; for he was only one of the escort for the personal 
safety of Godey, in his dangerous mission, traversing eighty 



The War with Mexico 19 

miles (going and coming) of insurgent country, filled with a 
hostile population, and rode over by fleet cavalry, flushed 
with victory. The secret of the mission asking for aid was 
confined to Godey — not to be committed to others, for 
fear of midtiplying the chances of its getting to the knowl- 
edge of the enemy. 

Burgess could tell nothing. Then it was that black 
despair fell upon the American camp. Without provisions, 
without power to move, besieged by conquerors, without 
the hope of relief — a surrender at discretion, or death in a 
vain effort to escape, were the only alternatives. In this 
mournful dilemma, American spirit rose to the level of the 
occasion. Men and officers, one and all, the unhappy 
wounded with the rest, demanded to be led forth. Then 
the mournful preparations were made. All the baggage 
was burnt — everything that could encumber the march. 
The helpless part of the wounded were put on ambulances. 
At one o'clock the devoted column began to move — Pico, 
on the watch, observing the movement. In a moment his 
lancers were in the saddle, mounted on their fleet, docile, 
daring, and educated horses, such as the Mameluke 
never rode. He was then in front, in the open and beauti- 
ful valley through which the road lay down the river to 
San Diego. Suddenly the lancers defiled to the right — 
came round into the rear of the hill — halted and formed at 
six hundred yards distance ; as much as to say, ''We open the 
road to you; take it." Then Kearny halted his column, 
and consulted his officers, and others — Carson knows who. 

The question was, to go or not? The solution seemed to 
depend upon the possibility of getting relief from Stockton ; 
if there was a chance for that relief, wait for it; if not, go 
forward. Stockton was thirty-five miles distant, and noth- 
ing heard from him; for Burgess, as I have said, could tell 
nothing. To send another express to Stockton seemed 
hopeless, the distance and dangers were so great. Besides, 
who would venture to go, seeing the fate of Godey and 



20 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

knowing the state of the country? It was a moment to find 
a hero; and one presented himself. It was the lad Beale. 
It was then one o'clock; the column fell back into camp; 
early dark was fixed for the departure of the daring messen- 
ger; and he was asked whom he would have for his compan- 
ion. "Carson and my Indian servant," was the reply. 
The General answered that he could not spare Carson — 
that general who swore before the court-martial that he had 
never seen the man before or since who brought him Fre- 
mont's letter of the 17th of January — that man being 
Carson! He could not spare him. He wanted a coun- 
sellor, as well as a guide and a hero. Then said Beale, "No 
other can help me; and I will go with the Indian servant." 
General Kearny then said Carson might go. Carson has 
since told me that Beale volunteered first. 

The brief preparations for the forlorn hope — les enfans 
perdus; los hijos perdidos — were soon made; and brief they 
were. A rifle each, a blanket, a revolver, a sharp knife, 
and no food; there was none in the camp. General Kearny 
invited Beale to come and sup with him. It was not the 
supper of Antony and Cleopatra; for when the camp 
starves, no general has a larder. It was meagre enough. 
The General asked Beale what provisions he had to travel 
on; the answer was, nothing. The General called his ser- 
vant to inquire what his tent afforded; a handful of flour 
was the answer. The General ordered it to be baked into 
a loaf and given to Beale. When the loaf was brought, the 
servant said that was the last, not of bread only, but of 
everything; that he had nothing left for the General's 
breakfast. Beale directed the servant to carry back the 
loaf, saying he would provide for himself. He did provide 
for himself; and how? By going to the smouldering fire 
where the baggage had been burnt in the morning, and 
scraping from the ashes and embers the half-burnt peas 
and grains of com which the conflagration had spared, 
filling his pockets with the unwonted food. Carson 




a. ^• 

erf ^ 



U 

o 



J! 
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The War with Mexico 21 

and the faithful Indian provided for themselves some 
mule-beef. 

The darkness of the night fell upon the camp, and the 
moment arrived for descending from the hill and clearing 
the open valley, two miles to the nearest cover. It was a 
perilous descent; for at the approach of night it was the 
custom of Pico to draw a double chain of sentinels around 
the hill, and to patrol the valley with mounted lancers — 
precautions more vigilantly enforced since he learnt from 
the captured men that Carson was on the hill. "Be on the 
alert," he said to his men, "Carson is there"; and applying 
to Kearny's command one of the figurative expressions so 
common in the Spanish language — se escapara el lobo: the 
wolf will escape the hunters if you do not watch him close. 

The descent was perilous and painful, all done by crawl- 
ing; for the upright figure of a man could not be exhibited 
where the horizon was watched for all that appeared above 
it. Shoes were pulled off to avoid cracking a stick or 
making a sound, which the ear of the listener pressed upon 
the ground could catch, and the naked feet exposed to the 
prickly pear. They passed between sentinels, waiting and 
watching their time to move an inch. They heard them 
whisper, and smelt the smoke of the cigarito. At one time, 
Beale thought it was all over mth them. Pressing Carson's 
thigh to get his attention, and putting his mouth upon his 
ear, he whispered into it, "We are gone; let us jump up and 
fight it out." Carson said, "No, I have been in worse 
places before, and Providence saved me." His religious 
reliance encouraged the sinking hopes of Beale. The hill 
cleared, two miles of prairie in the open valley, all covered 
with prickly pears, remained to be crawled over, for no one 
could stand upright without detection where the mounted 
vidette observed every object that rose above the level 
plain. 

Clear of the valley and gaining the first woods, they 
travelled all night without shoes, having lost them in the 



22 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

dark. Rocks, stones, pebbles, prickly pears, there of 
exuberant growth, were their carpet. At daylight they 
took a gorge of a mountain, and laid by, for movement by 
day was impossible to them ; the whole country was on the 
alert, animated to the highest by the success over Kearny, 
and all on the search for fugitives. At nightfall the expedi- 
tion was resumed, and within twelve miles of San Diego the 
three adventurers separated, each to take his chance of 
getting in, and thus multiply chances for getting relief to 
Kearny; for San Diego also was surrounded and invested, 
and Stockton had not a horse (having sent all to Kearny) to 
scour the country a furlong in front of his infantry pickets. 
The Indian got in first, Beale next, Carson third, all in a 
state of utter exhaustion, and Beale only getting into the 
town by the help of the men who carried him, and with 
injuries from which he has not yet recovered. 

When the Mexican rising took place under Flores 
and Pico, or to be quite frank about it when the 
Californians attempted to wrest their country 
from the hands of 'the invaders, Fremont with his 
small force was encamped in the Valley of the 
Sacramento. He was apparently endeavoring, 
with but slight success, to induce the emigrants 
to take part in Stockton's expedition against 
Old Mexico. The Mexican uprising, as it was 
called, cancelled all previously held plans and 
Fremont was ordered to come forthwith to San 
Francisco "with" as Fremont writes in his 
Memoirs: 

all the men and saddles I could obtain. To bring my 
command to San Francisco [continues Fremont], Commo- 
dore Stockton had sent a fleet of boats in charge of Mid- 



The War with Mexico 23 

shipman Edward Beale whom I had met in Monterey in 
July. At our meeting now commenced intervals of agree- 
able companionship on interesting occasions that resulted in 
a family friendship which has continued for forty years. 

Gen. Beale at the date to which I refer was a real midship- 
man of the old type, happy and spilling over with uncon- 
trolled good spirits as mostly midshipmen are used to be 
when away from the restraints of the ship. . . . The delta 
of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers and the bay and 
its sloughs at that time were not familiar to sea-going men, 
or indeed to men of any kind. Of his navigation through 
the Tulares in search of me I will let Beale speak for him- 
self. 

"I remember the lovely spring-like morning,"^ writes 
Gen. Beale, "I think it was autumn but it ought to have 
been spring because I was so happy when I was ordered to 
command a squadron of boats (what is the Presidency to 
that at 19 or 20!) and go to find Fremont. . . . Wide and 
beautiful before us was the splendid and lonely bay. We 
looked curiously at Red Rock, passed La Isla de las Yeguas 
and met the furious tide of Garquinez Straits, my remem- 
brance is it steered us and we camped for the night. 

" The next day we looked over the vast ocean of tules and 
toward where the Sacramento and the San Joaquin come to- 
gether in the great middle mere of that wonderful delta. 
There was everything curious to us that sunset, Monte 
Diavolo with double peaks, a long white line very distant 
which told of the Sierra Nevada and the bewitching contour 
of the nearer coast range and the quiet and lovely valleys 
lying close aboard. . . . We pulled in and next day we dis- 
covered a man on horseback whereupon we prepared to 
give him a broadside, as we were some distance from camp, 
and were already owners in fancy of a horse and saddle, 
when to our intense disgust he spoke in English and proved 

' This letter was written by Gen. Beale at Gen. Fremont's request 
when the latter was preparing his Memoirs, about 1872. 



24 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

to be Jake Snyder of Fremont's battalion. Then I had 
found my Holy Grail and went with him to Sonoma or 
some such place. We went like the Knight Hospitalers, 
two on one horse, I holding on to the tafirail when at a 
gallop. 

"The town was all ablaze, old Ide was there and Cosgrove, 
and Snyder and Hensley and Bidwell and Gibson and a lot 
of others. Very soon, mayhap it was the next day, we all 
went to the boats and soon set sail for the bay again. 
Major Fremont being naturally in the fastest boat with me, 
we outsailed the fleet and at nightfall hauled up on an 
island. . . . Howsomever we got away and reached the old 
frigate Congress . . . and all this happened in the fall of 
*46 and a few unimportant matters have happened since but 
hardly worth recording." 



CHAPTER III 
With Carson on the Gila 

Beale the Hero of San Pasqual — Commodore Stockton's 
Despatches and the Praise of his Brother Officers — ■ 
Beale and Carson Set Out across the Plainsi to Carry 
the News to Washington — Gen. Sherman's Picture 
of Carson — Adventures on the Gila — Dogged by 
Indians for Eight Hundred Miles on the Central 
Plains — "Them 's Arrers" — Lions in St. Louis and 
Washington — A Short Holiday — Back across the 
Plains Again — Incredible Hardships in the Gila Coun- 
try — Beale Discovers or Divines the Santa Fe Trail — 
The Rev. Colton as Alcalde of Monterey — The Milch 
Cow "Eschews" to the Court — Sutter's Mill-race and 
the Golden Sands — Conditions of Life in El Do- 
rado — The Rev. Colton's Complaint and Prayerful 
Hope — Beale as a Caricaturist — The Alleged Resent- 
ment of Catesby Jones — Story of Gold in California — 
Competition between the Army and Navy to Get the 
News East — Beale's Views on the Gold Question. 

U. S. Frigate "Congress," 
Harbor of San Diego, 
Feb. 9, 1847. 
Sir: 

I have selected you to be the bearer of the accompanying 
despatches to the Navy Department in consequence of 
your heroic conduct in volunteering to leave Gen. Kearny's 

25 



26 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

camp (then surrounded by the enemy) to go to the Garrison 
of San Diego for assistance and because of the perils and 
hardships you underwent during that dangerous journey, 
to procure aid for your suffering fellow soldiers. 

You will proceed without delay with Mr. Carson's party 
by the most expeditious route overland. 

On your arrival at Washington you will immediately 
deliver the despatches to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy 
and receive his instructions for your future government. 

Faithfully, 

Your obt. servt. 

R. F. Stockton. 
To Actg. Lt. E. F. Beale. 

That Beale's services were as highly esteemed 
by his brother officers and shipmates as they were 
by the commodore, a happy state of affairs which 
does not always exist in the service, was shown by 
the following letter and the incident so creditable 
to all concerned which it describes. 

San Diego, Dec. 21, 1846. 
Dear Beale: 

We your friends and brother officers have ordered from 
England a pair of epaulettes and sword to be presented to 
you by the hands of Lieut. Tilghman, in testimony of our 
admiration of your gallant conduct in the bold and hazard- 
ous enterprise of leaving Gen. Kearny's encampment, 
after the battles of San Pasqual and San Bernardino of the 
6th of December, 1846, for the purpose of bringing informa- 
tion to the garrison of San Diego and obtaining relief for the 
suffering troops. Your bravery in the field of action and 
cool determination in the service above spoken of merits 
our warmest applause and we congratulate you upon the 
opportunity of distinction which you so handsomely 
improved. Hoping that the President of the United States 



With Carson on the Gila 27 

will not overlook your merit and that you may speedilj'' 
wear the epaulettes and sword as the mark of your legiti- 
mate rank, we remain, yours faithfully, 

W. W. Revere, Lt., Sam Mosbey, Surgeon, 

W. B. Renshaw, Lt., R. Lloyd Tilghman, Lt., 

Ben. F. B. Hunter, Lt., Jno. Guest, Lt., 

W. B. Harrison, Master, J. Zeilan, Capt., 

C. Eversfield, Surgeon, H. B. Watson, 

Jas. H. Watmough, P. M., George Minor, Lt., 
Wm. Speeden, P. M., J. H. Thompson, Lt., 

C. D. Maxwell, Surgeon, A. A. Henderson, Inc. 9, 

F. J. Stenson, Master, G. W. Harrison, Lt., 

G. Missrova, Lt., Edwd. Higgins, Lt. 

Carson, who acted as Beale's guide in this jour- 
ney across the plains in the winter of 1846-7 with 
Stockton's despatches, is said to have been a grand- 
son of Daniel Boone and came to his pioneering 
prowess and woodcraft by right of heredity. He 
was a son of the plains but at the same time had 
none of the physical characteristics of the frontiers- 
man. General W. T. Sherman who saw Carson in 
1848 in the company of Beale describes the cele- 
brated scout as follows : 

He was a small, stoop-shouldered man with reddish 
hair, freckled face, soft blue eyes and nothing to indicate 
extraordinary courage or daring. He spoke but Uttle and 
answered questions in monosyllables. He spent some days 
in Monterey during which time we extracted some items 
of his personal history. 

In all his journeys Carson was so cautious that 
not a few, strangers to the quality of his courage, 



28 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

deemed him timid. Not a tree, a rock, a bush, or 
any other place where an Indian might hide escaped 
his notice. His eye was ever scanning the horizon 
for the hazy smoke that might indicate an Indian 
fire, or the flight of crows which generally hovered 
over a spot where Indians had recently encamped, 
and the ground he was always scrutinizing in 
search of the pressure of the horse's unshod foot or 
of the Indian's moccasin. For this expedition 
with Lieutenant Beale to Washington, Commodore 
Stockton gave the young scout a free hand, and 
ten picked marksmen were enrolled. The expe- 
dition took an extremely southern route and after 
journeying four hundred miles they reached the 
Gila, a tributary of the Lower Colorado. Here 
Carson's lynx eyes brought to light evidence of the 
fact that a band of hostile Indians, though always 
keeping out of sight, were dogging his path and 
eagerly watching for an opportunity to take him by 
surprise. The route led over a vast prairie where 
there were no natural defences. When he con- 
sidered that the psychological moment had come, 
from indications that were anything but enlight- 
ening to his companions, Carson met Indian 
strategy with the trapper's ruse. Carson and 
Beale and the other riflemen cooked their supper 
rather early in the evening, and wrapped in their 
blankets threw themselves on the grass, apparently 
to sleep, but as soon as it was dark the men were 
ordered to rise and to march forward for something 
more than a mile, again to picket their animals and 



With Carson on the Gila 29 

to arrange their pack saddles so that they might 
serve as a protection from the arrows of the Indians. 
At midnight the yell of the savage was heard and a 
shower of arrows fell around but wide of the mark. 
The attacking party had not ascertained with 
accuracy the changed position of the travellers. 
They dared not approach near enough to see, for 
in that case they knew the fate that awaited them 
from the unerring aim of Kit and his companions. 
After many random shots and many unearthly 
yells the discomfited savages fled before the ap- 
proach of dawn. And this was the last serious 
attempt made by the "horse Indians" to prevent the 
bearers of despatches from crossing their territory. 

East of the Colorado River and in the Central 
desert there was no respite from other escorting 
Indians. Beale and Carson were only accom- 
panied by ten men and they were doggedly followed 
for eight hundred miles by a large band who day 
or night were hardly ever out of sight; however, 
after one or two costly attempts to charge the 
wide-awake plainsmen, the Indians contented 
themselves with repeated but always unsuccessful 
attempts to stampede their horses and mules. 

Carson had seen Beale stand to his guns with a 
handful of bluejackets while the Mexican lancers, 
in what should have been overpowering ntmibers, 
charged his battery again and again. He had 
been his comrade in the desperate journey through 
a hostile country from San Pasqual to San Diego, 
but it was a little incident of this trip that the 



30 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

scout loved to relate as more fully giving the 
measure of Beale's bravery : 

Things whirring like birds on the flight wuz flying over 
us as I wuz trying to sleep by the campfire [said Carson], 
and Ned was sleepin or leastwise he wuz snorin. Then 
suddenly he sits up and says, "What's that Don Kit? " and 
I says, "Them 's arrers " and they wuz and coiild you believe 
it before I could hold him do\\'n Ned was wrapping his 
buffalo robe about him and standing in the fire kicking out 
the embers. "Now," sez he, as them arrers came whizzin 
along like a raft of geese going South before er North wind. 
"Now," sez he, " Don Kit, they won't be able to get our 
directions any more and you know they don't dare rush us " ; 
then he tumbled down on the ground and went on with his 
sleepin. 

Carson and Beale were of course great cards to 
the curious when they arrived in St. Louis and 
later at the Capital. They were reluctant lions, 
and Carson was most uncomfortable in the pres- 
ence of the crowds of citizens who waited upon 
him to see him "plain" and to shake his s'newy 
hand for one ecstatic moment. But Carson would 
never allow himself to be rushed, as he called it, in 
the house. "I allays see folks out in the road," 
he would explain as he sidled out into the street to 
meet the citizens who were always awaiting his ap- 
pearance in front of the Benton house in St. Louis 
and later outside of Mrs. Beale's in Washington. 
Carson could never sleep indoors and when Mrs. 
Beale, the mother of his young companion, arranged 
a simple couch for him on her veranda the family 




a 



■4-> '^ 

^ 2 



With Carson on the Gila 31 

chronicle states that "Kit shed tears of gratitude 
and joy." 

Beale and Carson were made much of wherever 
they went. They were lodged at Senator Benton's 
and met the most distinguished men of the day. 
Beale was allowed a few days in which to visit 
Chester, where the young girl who became his wife 
resided, and President Polk, much to his dismay, 
appointed Carson, the dashing scout, a lieutenant 
in the United States Rifles. However, these idle 
days were soon over, and both men were soon on 
their way back to the new world, the Pacific world, 
they were doing so much to open to the crowded 
East. ' 

* Washington City, Aug., 1847. 
To the Hon. Mr. Mason, Sec. of Navy. 
Sir: 

Passed Midshipman Edward Beale, now ill at Philadelphia, has 
written to me to desire the Department to charge him with despatches 
for the North Pacific. I do so with pleasure, being well informed by all 
who have returned from California of his most meritorious conduct there, 
especially in the signal act of volunteering with Mr. Carson and his 
Indian servant to make his way through the Californian forces and 
amidst incredible dangers and sufferings to go to Commodore Stockton 
for reUef to Gen. Kearny, and also in volunteering to parley with Hon. 
Andres Pico for an exchange of prisoners and the handsome manner in 
which he executed it, and for his manly daring in crossing the continent 
last spring amid great suflfering and with heroic courage and constancy. 

Having a high opinion of the young man for honor, courage, truth, 
modesty, enterprise and perseverance I should be happy to see him 
noticed and countenanced by the Department. 

Yours respectfully, 

Thomas H. Benton. 

To Hon. Thomas H. Benton, 

Aug. 27, 1847. 

The Department appreciates Mr. Beale's meritorious services and will 
give him orders to return when his health is sufficiently re-established to 



34 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

narrow and dangerous canyons that produce whirlpools and 
cascades which would engulf any water craft entrusted to 
their control. 



After this rough experience Lieutenant Beale cast 
about him for a more favorable route to the Pacific 
from the Alissouri settlements. In his next journey 
westward he hit upon the Santa Fe trail which soon 
became the principal avenue of communication be- 
tween the two sections of the country. Years later, 
in 1 880, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad 
was built along Beale's route and the company very 
gracefully requested General Beale to become the 
engineer-in-chief, if only in a consulting or honorary 
capacity, of the great trans-continental line which 
he had first explored and later opened to the passage 
of prairie "schooners, " an honor which on account 
of other engagements General Beale was compelled 
to decline. 

There are many amusing stories told of the early 
days of American control in California and in 
many of these the Reverend Walter Colton who 
came out as chaplain on the Congress figures. There 
was one in particular that in after years General 
Beale delighted to relate. His old ship-mate, who 
wrote a volume entitled Three Years in California, 
did not think the incident of sufhcient importance 
to set down in his somewhat ponderous chronicles of 
these interesting times. 

When Commodore Stockton instituted civil 
government over the territory so recently wrested 



With Carson on the Gila 35 

from the Mexicans, the Reverend Colton was 
appointed alcalde of Monterey, where his duties 
were both administrative and judicial. Gambling 
was then the besetting sin of the Mexican Califor- 
nian, as it soon became that of the American 
invader. There was also a dearth of milch cows 
in the community, which was all the more severely 
felt because in those days condensed milk and the 
other substitutes were unknown. 

One day two gamblers were brought before 
the clerical alcalde as was also a magnificent fresh 
cow. They were charged with having gambled 
over it and the ownership of the animal was dis- 
puted. The Reverend Colton considered the 
story as set forth by the interested parties with 
great interest and then submitted the following 
decree. 

"You, sir, lost the cow, consequently it does not belong to 
you." Then turning to the other man, he said, "You, sir, 
have won it — you have won it by gambling, but this is a 
form of transfer that the Court does not recognize. In my 
opinion, therefore, the animal eschews to the Court." 

The coveted cow was henceforth attached to the 
Court and the decision of the alcalde greatly 
admired by all save the bereaved former owner. 
The milk punches which the Court was now 
enabled to serve from time to time, and indeed 
always when the ex-chaplain's former messmates 
called upon him, became famous throughout the 
land, and were very generally regarded as an 



36 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

important auxiliary to the speedy Americaniza- 
tion of the conquered territory. 

In the last days of the year 1847 the Swiss 
pioneer Sutter began to build a sawmill and to 
deepen his mill-race. To do this the earth was 
loosened during the day and the waters of the 
river turned in at night to wash out the dirt. 
Marshall saw the glittering sand one day in the 
following January. A determined attempt to 
keep the discovery secret was made, but without 
much success. In March the discovery was men- 
tioned in the California papers and a few days 
later the precious dust in small quantities was 
being sold in some of the port towns. Then 
scenes were enacted which will doubtless never 
be seen again. Ships were abandoned in the 
harbors and churches closed. San Francisco was 
deserted and the flight up the Sacramento River 
toward the gold fields began. Even the army 
posts were reduced by desertion to corporal's 
guards and our naval vessels in Monterey harbor 
were kept off the land and without communication 
with the shore. Commodore Jones reported: 

"Even men having balances due them of over one 
thousand dollars have deserted. Nothing, sir, can ex- 
ceed the deplorable state of things in all upper California 
at this time and of the maddening effect of the gold mania. 
I am sorry to say that in this squadron some of the 
officers are a little tainted and have manifested restlessness 
under moderate restrictions. For the present, and I fear 
for years to come, [the Commodore continues] it will be 



With Carson on the Gila 37 

impossible for the United States to maintain any naval or 
military establishments in California, as at present no hope 
of reward or fear of punishment is sufficient to make binding 
any contract between man and man upon the soil of Califor- 
nia. To send troops out here would be needless as they 
would immediately desert." 

Paymaster Rich, U. S. N., writing to the Depart- 
ment from Monterey at the same time says: 

" The pay of Governors and Judges, etc., as allowed in the 
United States will hardly compare with that paid to sales- 
men and clerks here." 

During the six months of Beale's absence from 
California the United States had instituted civil gov- 
ernment, and changed — almost incredible — con- 
ditions presented themselves on every side. The 
Reverend Walter Colton, chaplain of the frigate 
Congress, a shipmate of Beale, the first alcalde of 
Monterey after the American conquest, describes 
in his volume already referred to one phase of the 
remarkable situation in the following sentences : 

Her emigrants are rushing from every continent and isle, 
they crest every mountain, they cover every sea; they 
sweep in like a cloud from the Pacific, they roll down like a 
torrent from the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. They crowd 
to her bosom to gather gold, their hammers and drills, their 
mattocks and spades divert the deep stream and are echoed 
from a thousand cavemed hills, the level plain, the soaring 
cliflE and wombed mountain give up their glowing treasures. 

But the gifts of nature here are not confined to her 
sparkling sands and veined rocks, they extend to the produc- 



38 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

tive forces of her soil, they lie along her water courses, 
through her verdant valleys and wave in her golden grain, 
they reel in her vintage, they blush in her fruits, while her 
soft zephyrs as they float the landscape scatter perfume from 
their odorous wings. 

But with all these gifts disease is here with i'-s pale 
victims and sorrow with its willow woven shrine. There is 
no land less relieved by the smiles and soothing cares of 
women. If Eden with its ambrosial fruits and guiltless 
joys was still sad the voice of woman mingled with its 
melodies, California with all her treasured hills and streams 
must be cheerful till she feels the presence of the same 
enchantress. It is woman alone that can make a home for 
the human heart . . . where her footsteps light the freshest 
flowers spring! where her voice swells the softest echoes 
wake! Her smiles garland the domestic hearth, her sym- 
pathy melts through the deepest folds of grief. Her love 
clothes the earth with light. ... Of all these sources of 
solace and hope multitudes in California are now bereft; 
but the ties of kindred, the quick- winged ship and the 
steed of flame on his iron-paved track will soon secure them 
these priceless gifts. 

Beale, a few weeks before the discovery of gold, 
had been detached from the flagship Ohio and 
given disagreeable duty on shore. This was the 
first setback the rising young ofhcer had received 
upon his upward course and while there is no trace 
of it upon Beale's ofhcial record he is supposed, 
according to the service tradition, to have incurred 
the commodore's displeasure in this wise. Jones, 
though in command of a large fleet, loved nothing 
better than to sail a small boat unless it was to tell 
of the important part he had taken in the Battle 



With Carson on the Gila 39 

of New Orleans, where he commanded a flotilla of 
small boats which helped to delay the British 
advance until Jackson was ready to receive it with 
sharpshooters behind cotton bales. Some of the 
younger officers knew the story by heart and very 
much disliked sailing with the commodore on these 
little excursions where it would seem that from the 
force of suggestion he could not help telling his 
1 81 3 war story. The youngsters were nimble and 
would get out of the commodore's way when it 
was evident he was about to embark upon one of 
these, for him at least, pleasure trips and in conse- 
quence the fleet surgeon, an elderly man, generally 
became his companion and, it is said, acquitted 
himself in the task with considerable diplomacy. 

Beale had a happy or unhappy knack of cari- 
cature and he drew a cartoon which represented 
the commodore sailing his boat and holding forth 
to the fleet surgeon upon certain incidents of the 
New Orleans campaign which had not been dwelt 
upon in most histories. As the commodore talked 
the obsequious surgeon could be seen sluicing him 
up and down with a grease pot such as sailors use 
on the rigging. The commodore never saw the 
cartoon which convulsed the fleet but he heard of 
it and Beale was detached. Some of the officers 
saw in Beale' s subsequent selection to carry des- 
patches and the news of gold across Mexico 
a further evidence of the commodore's hostility. 
If it was, and all this rests upon the flimsiest tra- 
dition, Jones's hostility was more useful to Beale 



40 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

than even Benton's friendship. It gave the mid- 
shipman a chance to distinguish himself which he 
was not slow to seize. 

There is no official record or reference in the 
family archives of how Beale secured the golden 
nuggets and the glittering sands which he carried 
East to initiate a movement which changed the 
course of history. He did not secure it first hand 
from the diggings, as his first visit there was some 
months later. In the Navy the tradition was that 
Beale secured the treasiu-e from one of the earliest 
visitors to the mill-race in exchange for one hun- 
dred grains of quinine which Beale was too old a 
traveller ever to be without. Certain it is only 
that at this time in Monterey and San Francisco 
quinine was quoted higher than gold, grain for 
grain. 

Of recent years the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia can boast its own literature and not a few 
controversies. There evidently was keen rivalry 
between the officers of the Army and the officers 
of the Navy as to which branch of the service 
should have the honor of carrying the epoch- 
making news to Washington. Beale left La Paz 
a month before Lieutenant Loeser of the engineers 
and reached the Capital two months before his 
army rival, thanks to his daring short cut across 
Mexico. 

As was to be expected of an army man afloat, 
Lieutenant Loeser had many misadventures. 
Owing apparently to adverse winds the skipper of 



With Carson on the Gila 41 

the schooner upon which he embarked could not or 
would not land him at Panama but carried him on 
to the port of Payta at the mouth of the Guayaquil 
River in Peru and from there the young engineer 
made haste to retrace his steps and cross the 
Isthmus, but in the meantime the gold-bearing 
midshipman had reached the Capital. Commodore 
Jones had found no authority in the regulations 
to purchase a specimen of the gold, and the nugget 
and the sands which Beale carried were his own 
private property and venture. Col. Mason, how- 
ever, commanding the army in California at the 
time, apparently at the suggestion of his aid, Lieut. 
W. T. Sherman, purchased three thousand dollars 
worth of the gold and turned it over to Loeser for 
conveyance to the Secretary of War. This gold 
was officially examined at the mint and the report 
upon it published by the Government set at rest all 
doubt as to the value of the discovery which was 
at first hotly disputed. 

Beale at this time as well as in later life 
always maintained that while the discovery in 
Sutter's mill-race was the most important and per- 
haps the first gold discovered in paying quantities, 
the presence of gold in California had been well 
known to the Mexicans for twenty years before. 
He was also inclined to think that the attempt of 
the Russians to settle and colonize on our Pacific 
Coast, coming down from Alaska for this purpose, 
was inspired by rumors of the presence of gold. 



CHAPTER IV 
Beale Brings First Gold East 

Beale's Daring Journey across Mexico with the First 
Gold — Gente de Camino — Mexico City and Minister 
Clifford — Fate of Beale's Guide — Senators Foote and 
Benton Hear the Wonderful Story — William Carey 
Jones's Account of Journey in National Intelligencer — 
Beale Introduced to the United States Senate — Wise 
"Stay-at- Homes" Show Incredulity — Beale Walks 
down Wall Street with Mr. Aspinwall — P. T. Barnum 
Wants to Exhibit the Gold — But Half the Treasure is 
Fashioned into an Engagement Ring — Courting at 
Chester — Ammen's Letter to the Young Argonaut — On 
the Trail Again — Letter from Big Timber — Beale's 
Description of His Route across the Continent — Along 
the Thirty-fifth Parallel— Old Trail Develops into 
Atchison, Topeka and Santa F^ Railroad — Chronologi- 
cal Table of Beale's Early Travels — Marriage with Miss 
Edwards — Arctic Expedition Proposed — Letters from 
Captain Lynch and Commodore Maiiry — Bayard Taylor 
Dedicates His Book on California to Beale — Beale Re- 
signs from the Service — He Retrieves the Business 
Ventures of Commodore Stockton and Mr. Aspinwall. 

BEALE left the port of La Paz near the foot 
of the peninsula of California on the first of 
August, and on the fifth arrived at Mazat- 
lan on the west coast of Mexico. There he took 

42 




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Beale Brings First Gold East 43 

passage in a small Mexican goleta, which after a 
stormy voyage of five days made the harbor of 
San Bias. From San Bias he proposed to travel 
overland, southeast a thousand miles by way of 
Guadalajara and Mexico City to Vera Cruz; and 
from here, on August 13th, he started accompanied 
only by a guide in spite of the earnest dissuasions of 
the Governor of San Bias and of every one else who 
heard of his project. 

Beale dressed himself for his jotirney in a som- 
brero, a red flannel shirt, leather breeches and boots. 
He carried four six-barrelled revolvers, and a knife. 
Being very much sunburned and speaking Spanish 
well his chances of being taken for a Mexican by 
casual observers were fairly good. 

The rainy season was just setting in and the bad 
roads becoming daily worse, but the real dangers of 
the trip lay in the bands of ladrones who infested 
all the highways of Mexico, and whose numbers had 
been hugely strengthened by the recent disbanding 
of Paredes's army. By the time Beale arrived at 
Tepic he had been held up once by three gente de 
camino, who however had made off when con- 
fronted with great resolution and the four American 
revolvers, and he had become so thoroughly 
convinced of the imcertainties and perils of his 
undertaking that he assumed the responsibility of 
opening his despatches and making copies of them, 
which copies he enclosed with a note to the Ameri- 
can Minister at Mexico City, and put in the mail. 
Then he immediately pushed on, travelling night 



44 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

and day and taking no rest but by throwing himself 
on the ground at each post while the saddles were 
being changed to fresh horses. 

Once, before arriving at Guadalajara a banda, 
coming out of the woods just at nightfall, chased 
him for several hours, but he finally outrode them, 
though not before the foremost of them had shot 
at him a number of times with their carbines. At 
the next post after this adventure he heard of a 
party of eleven travellers just ahead of him, but 
before he could come up with them they were 
attacked by a large party of ladrones and mur- 
dered to a man. Beale found their blood still 
staining the muddy ground. 

After leaving Guadalajara the rainy season set 
in in full force. Furious storm succeeded furious 
storm, the water courses swelled into raging tor- 
rents which could only be crossed by swimming. 
The roads were blocked by uprooted trees and 
avalanches of stones and mud, and at night Beale 
found his way chiefly by the almost incessant 
flashes of the lightning. When on the eighth 
day he arrived at Mexico City he was literally 
cased in mud, and dried himself for the first time 
since leaving San Bias. Mr. Clifford, our Minister 
in Mexico, ' wishing also to send despatches, Beale 

' Among the Beale papers is a weather-stained parchment bearing 
these credentials. 

To All Whom it May Concern. I the undersigned Minister of the 
United States residing in the City of Mexico do hereby certify that 
Edward F. Beale is a bearer of despatches from this Legation entitled 
to all the privileges and immunities to which agents are entitled. 



Beale Brings First Gold East 45 

was detained three days while they were prepar- 
ing, but he made up for the delay by covering 
the ninety leagues between Mexico City and Vera 
Cruz in the extraordinary time of sixty hours, 
in spite of being held up once more by ladrones 
from whom he only escaped by the speed of his 
horse and the reckless daring with which he rode 
him down an almost precipitous mountainside. 

At Vera Cruz he slept under a roof for the 
first time since leaving Mazatlan, with the excep- 
tion of his two nights of enforced stay at the Capi- 
tal. The mind of his unfortunate guide had been 
unhinged by the dangers and fatigues of the jour- 
ney, and the city authorities were obliged to send 
him back under guard in the diligence. 

Four days after his arrival Beale left Vera Cruz 
in the sloop-of-war Germantown , which after a 
tedious passage put him ashore at Mobile. ' 

With his wonderful news of the El Dorado on the 
shores of the Pacific and his nugget and golden 
sands to prove that his was not a mere sailor's yarn, 
Beale received ovations wherever he went. Towns 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Legation at the City of 
Mexico this 21st day of August 1848. 

Nathan Clifford. 

Attest: 

Wm. Walsh, Secretary of Legation. 

■ Such wonderful and Munchausen -like exploits were attributed to 
Beale by the press of the cities and towns through which he passed on 
the way to the Capital that shortly after his arrival in Washington the 
young argonaut authorized his friend, a well-known journalist of 
the day, William Carey Jones, to publish a sober and restrained account 
of his feat in the National Intelligencer. It is from this article that 
the account given above is condensed. 



46 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

and even hamlets gave the passing traveller ban- 
quets while the infamous thirst for the yellow 
metal began to make itself felt in the most austere 
bosoms. From Mobile the returning argonaut 
travelled North partly by stage and for some 
days at least in the company of Senator Foote of 
Mississippi, who drank in greedily all the tales 
from the Pacific which were unfolded and who 
upon their arrival in Washington insisted upon 
sharing with Benton the honor of introducing the 
bearer of such momentous news to the Senate of 
the United States. 

Of course there were unbelievers, and special 
messengers were sent to California by sea and by 
land to secure specimens of the alleged gold through 
official channels, to be subjected to the usual tests at 
the mint. In Washington there were also eviden- 
ces of incredulity, though Beale's good faith in the 
matter was never attacked. "It glitters, it looks 
like gold but is n't," was the verdict of the wise 
stay-at-homes. 

However, when Beale came to New York and 
walked down Wall Street leaning on Mr. Aspin wall's 
arm, the gold-hungry thousands followed them, 
broke into the exchange, and were not to be denied 
until the golden nugget was produced and the 
golden sands allowed to sift through their hands, 
an operation by which it is said the sands did not 
seem to increase or multiply. P. T. Bamum, then 
fast rising to the zenith of fame in the showman's 
world, sent Beale the following letter which was 



Beale Brings First Gold East 47 

followed up by messages and even with threats that 
he would come himself to secure the great prize. 

Barnum's Museum, 
Philadelphia. 
Lieut. Beale, 

Dear Sir: 

Mr, Harding of the Enquirer has just informed me that 
you have in your possession an 8 lb. lump of California gold. 
As I am always anxious to procure novelties for public grat- 
ification I write this to say that I should be glad to purchase 
the lump at its valuation if you will dispose of it and if not 
that I should like to procure it for exhibition for a few weeks. 
A line in reply will much oblige, 

Your obedient servant, 

P. T. Barnum. 

Feeling that he was no longer in his element, the 
young naval officer showed he possessed that part 
of valor which is discretion and which he had never 
before been suspected of possessing. Suddenly 
Beale disappeared from the popular excitement and 
turmoil and the gold also disappeared from circula- 
tion among the curious. Half of his trophy, like the 
loyal servant of the people that he was, Beale placed 
on view in the Patent Office in Washington, and 
the rest, by far the heavier and better half it is said, 
he was having fashioned into an engagement ring 
for the young lady who had consented to be his wife, 
with whom he was walking in the shades and nooks 
of "Green Bank," the Porters' estate at Chester, 
while all the world was wondering what had become 
of the youngster who had tired so quickly of being 
the man of the hour. 



48 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

It was down in Chester also that Beale received 
the following letter from his friend and classmate 
Daniel Ammen, afterwards a distinguished ad- 
miral for whom his affection only increased with 
the passing years. The letter told Beale what a 
fine fellow they thought him, indeed knew him to 
be, in the service, and what without the slightest 
doubt interested him the most in his frame of 
mind, that "our class are all marrying." 

Steamer " Bibb," 
Nantucket Island. 
Dear Ned: 

I saw with a great deal of pleasure that you had arrived 
again at the eastern part of "the land of the free and the 
home of the brave " and hope you will be content for a short 
time at least. 

Now, old fellow, come down to Nantucket and pass a 
short time catching fish and walking about on the shore of 
the great sea. I am tired of this damn monotonous life and 
want to hear of your last trip in order to believe it. This fall 
I shall assuredly go to sea and when I start it shall be for 
three cruises on end. 

I see you published in all the papers and as you are justly 
a lion I want you to come on and shake your tail at these 
people. After I saw of Fremont's hard time I was afraid 
that you would be unfortunate and was the more delighted 
to see your arrival in the East with some of the gold we read 
of. 

I got a letter from Catesby Jones dated the loth April 
but I have not written him yet, indeed I think I shall write 
him, when I do, to the East Indies. 

Our class are all marrying. "Brick-Top " is engaged to a 
very pretty little girl from Providence I think. I have not 
heard of Billy Muse making anybody happy yet. 



Beale Brings First Gold East 49 

We have the great naturalist, Agassiz, on board and as I 
spoke of your shooting a Capiniche, or sea hog or sea bear 
or some other animal whose name I don't know, the old 
fellow became highly excited and hoped you would lend 
him if not give him a skull if you have one. He wishes also 
to know whether they live in salt water, or brackish or fresh. 
If you will be good enough to send a skull to Professor 
Agassiz, Boston, by Adams Express, the old fellow will bear 
you in grateful remembrance during the remainder of his 
natural life. 

Are you going soon to California or in what direction do 
you think of branching out? Will you come down to Nan- 
tucket before you travel? Davis, Rodgers and myself will 
be delighted to see you. 

Be good enough to give my kindest regards to your 
mother's family as well as remember me affectionately to 
any old friends who may be drifting about where you are 
and believe me, 

Truly your friend, 

Ammen. 
Ed. F. Beale, Esq., U. S. Navy. 

Write to me at Nantucket. Don't forget the sea bear or 
hog or Capiniche. Raymond Rodgers sends his kindest 
regards. 

Beale's vacations were always matters of days 
rather than of weeks. Soon he was proceeding 
overland to the Pacific and from the Raton 
mountains writes the following joyous letter to the 
brother of his future wife. 

Camp at Big Timber, 

Dec. 3d, '48. 

My Dear Harry: 

I have stopped awhile to get a few buffalo robes to 
send your mother and which I hope will reach Chester with 
this letter. I find here three Americans trading with the 



50 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Indians. They have built a couple of miserable huts, but 
appear in spite of the cheerless and wretched appearance of 
ever3rthing around them to be making a very excellent busi- 
ness. There are thousands of Indians here but most of 
them friendly tribes, and those who are not disposed to be so 
are kept in awe by those who have met here to trade. I 
have had a most unpleasant journey so far, and the men I 
have with me are so utterly worthless that I anticipate many 
difficulties; not a day passes that I do not punish two or 
three. I have had two affairs with the Indians, one of 
which began so seriously that for a while I held my breath, 
but turned out in the end a trifle, in the other I came so very 
near losing my hair that I am not positive to this moment 
that my scalp sticks to the top of my head. In the last I 
behaved so entirely to my own satisfaction that I have half 
a mind to tell you about it and what I did, but you might 
accuse me of boasting too much and I am not very anxious 
to blow my own trumpet. 

The weather here is most cruelly, bitterly cold, it is snow- 
ing and freezing. You may form some idea of the severity 
of it when I tell you that a trader who passed some sixty 
miles to the southward of me lost in one snowstorm ninety 
mules frozen to death in a single night. I counted in one 
day myself, seventy-two animals dead and dying, belonging 
to a large company returning to the United States. In this 
weather we have sometimes at night after travelling all 
day to cross the river filled with floating masses of drift- 
ice to get wood, and bring it over again to camp, and this 
where the river is from three to five or six hundred yards in 
width. I mean no disparagement to your manhood, Harry, 
but I do not really think you could stand what I am doing, 
nor could I endure it but that I am constantly buoyed up by 
the hope of returning to you all once more. 

I get from the traders here most discouraging accounts of 
the Raton Mountains, which I am just now about to cross. 
It is said they are impassable but I have passed impassable 



Beale Brings First Gold East 51 

places before. They tell me also to tie my hair on before 
starting, as every party ahead of me has been attacked and 
defeated by the Apaches. The troops even have been 
whipped and driven off by them — regular soldiers that were 
sent against them. A party of eighteen men were attacked 
a short time since and several whom I knew very well, killed. 

If you can let my mother know that you have heard from 
me do so. I have not time to write to her. Say that I am 
doing well and happy and above all things don't drop a 
word about Indians. My best of warmest love to your 
sister, to whom I shall write from Santa Fe. Tell her I am 
very happy, happy because I am always thinking of her and 
my return. 

I write in great haste and a snowstorm is no place for 
letter writing. Love to those who love me. 

God bless you. Ever yours, 

Ned. 

The following is Beale's description of his trans- 
continental route, which soon after his first crossing 
began to play a great r61e in the development of the 
Southwest and the Pacific Coast, as indeed it does 
to-day, though now stone ballasted and iron railed. 

Our route was along the 35th parallel of latitude and our 
furthest variation did not exceed fifty-five miles. From 
our point of departure in New Mexico to the Colorado 
River, the easternmost boundary of Mexico, the distance 
travelled did not exceed 470 miles and there was everywhere 
an abundance of wood, water, and grass. 

The chain of the Rocky Mountains was passed but the 
elevation was so unimportant that the exploring caravan of 
men, camels, horses and mules was not conscious of the fact. 
The route was explored in mid-summer and retravelled in 
the very dead of winter yet neither impediments of drought 
nor snows were met with either way. 



52 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

In February, 1880, the first train over the Atchi- 
son Railroad arrived at Santa Fe and the old trail, 
so long known as Beale's "track," was closed, to 
interstate commerce at least, forever. 

Among the Beale papers is a chronological table 
of these early years of active restless travel which 
in later life General Beale wrote out at the request 
of his son. It is condensed and skeletonized to 
a degree, and, characteristically, all references to 
battles fought and honors won are omitted. 

Few men's lives reveal such a period of prolonged 
activity as is here disclosed, and one can only regret 
that the diaries and the route journals, which even 
at this early date young Beale was accustomed to 
keep, were in part lost through the vicissitudes of 
the journeys which they describe, or only survive 
entombed in government archives. 

The paper runs : 

Lieutenant Edward F. Beale left the United States on 
board the Congress in October, 1845, and twenty days 
after was transferred to a vessel bound to England as 
bearer of despatches for the United States, and he reached 
the United States between the 17th and the 20th of March, 
1846. Left for Callao, Peru, with despatches about April 
1st, 1846, and reached Callao in about six weeks by the 
Panama route. Sailed from Callao to California via Sand- 
wich Islands in the Congress, and arrived at San Francisco 
about July 20th, 1846. Served on shore with the army 
until the conquest of the country was completed, which was 
in February, 1847, when he was sent home with despatches 
by Commodore Stockton by overland route. 

Arrived in Washington about last of May, 1847, and was 



Beale Brings First Gold East 53 

sent back immediately across the plains with despatches, 
was taken sick and thus found upon the plains, and was 
carried back insensible to St, Louis. In the fall of 1847, 
he returned to the Pacific via Panama with despatches for 
Commodore Jones at Callao, and sailed from Callao to 
Mazatlan on board the Ohio and served on shore at Mazat- 
lan in command of a company until we heard of peace about 
August, 1848, when he was sent through Mexico, disguised 
as a Spaniard via Vera Cruz to Washington with despatches 
and arrived at Washington during September, 1848. 

About the 14th of October, 1848, received despatches 
from Secretary Marcey for Santa Fe and California, and 
arrived at Santa Fe December 25th, 1848, on foot and 
nearly naked. Continued journey and arrived at San 
Francisco about April loth, 1849. Left San Francisco with 
despatches for Washington April 13th, 1849, and arrived at 
Washington about June 17th, 1849. 

Left Washington with despatches for California overland 
for Commodore Jones, June 27th, 1849, and arrived at San 
Francisco about August 17th. Returned almost immedi- 
ately with despatches and arrived at Washington during 
December, 1849. 

Well might Carson, who was a traveller and 
despatch bearer himself, have been aghast, as he 
frankly confessed that he was, at the activity of 
his young navy friend, bom and grown to manhood 
in the effete East. 

Here concludes the adventurous period of the 
pioneer and the day of the resolute Forty-niner 
begins. 

Miss Mary Edwards, who now became the help- 
mate as well as wife of Beale, accompanied him to 
California where in San Francisco their son Trux- 



54 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

tun was born. Miss Edwards came of an old 
Delaware County family and of Quaker stock, 
her ancestors having accompanied Penn from 
England on his venture in the New World in the 
year 1682. Her father, Samuel Edwards, was only 
thirty-three years of age when elected to Congress 
and he represented Delaware County in the lower 
house for many years. In later life Mr. Edwards's 
health was far from robust but he practised suc- 
cessfully at the bar and served as Chief Burgess 
and Collector of Customs at Chester, Pa. In his 
obituary the Philadelphia Press wrote with truth: 
"During the administrations of Jackson and Van 
Buren, George G. and Samuel L. Leiper, Samuel 
Edwards and James Buchanan were the powers 
behind the throne." 

The Arctic expedition to which the following let- 
ters refer was planned in 1850. Captain Lynch, 
U. S. Navy, was to have been in command and he 
was, as this correspondence shows, most anxious 
to obtain the services of Beale as his first lieuten- 
ant. Mr. Henry Grinnell, the wealthy New York 
merchant who afterwards financed the Dr. Kane 
expedition, appeared in the matter as principal 
financial backer. While Beale was preparing him- 
self for adventurous activity in this new sphere 
there came from the Arctic contradictory news in 
regard to the fate of Franklin, and there were 
further delays on accoimt of Captain Lynch 's 
health which had become impaired by his travels 
in Asia Minor and the Holy Land. When a few 



Beale Brings First Gold East 55 

months later, through Maury, Mr. Grinnell offered 
the chief command to Beale, he had already made 
an arrangement with Commodore Stockton to 
return to California in charge of the latter's 
business interests there which he did not feel that 
he was at liberty to break. 

There are at this time references in the Beale 
papers to an expedition to explore the Gulf of 
Darien with the idea of ascertaining the exact loca- 
tion of the water-way across the Isthmus, which, 
curiously enough, despite the innumerable scien- 
tific surveys which have been made, the San 
Bias Indians to this day maintain exists, at least 
in the rainy season. Beale was asked to head 
this expedition and accepted. The necessary 
funds, however, were not forthcoming and the 
matter hung fire for many years. Ultimately the 
desired survey was carried out by a naval expe- 
dition under the auspices of the Government with 
but meagre results. Mention of these two widely 
divergent expeditions is made, two from among 
many others, to show how Beale 's daring and 
adventurous spirit had captivated public opinion 
and how generally recognized both in and out of the 
service was his ability to command and to undertake 
desperate hazards. It was at this moment, when 
the popularity of the "Hero of San Pasqual" was 
at its height, when he was the idol of the Southwest 
and the new world that was coming into being on 
the Pacific Coast, that Beale, in recognition of his 
family responsibilities, had the courage to resign, 



56 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

there being no enemies of his country in sight, 
and go into a business which must have seemed 
humdrum to his adventurous spirit. But Beale 
always recognized the call of duty and the adven- 
tures had not all been of his seeking, they came by 
the way. The offer of service in the Arctic was 
made in the following terms: 

Dear Sir: 

Although personally a stranger to you, the subject of 
this letter will, I trust, be its ample apology. 

When I first volunteered to go in quest of Sir Jno. Frank- 
lin and his companions, it was my purpose, if my application 
was successful, to have asked you to accompany me, for 
although you are recently married, I have not done your 
partner the injustice to class her among weak and frivolous 
wives, but rather, regarded her as one who would cheer you 
in an undertaking which would enhance your reputation 
and embellish (?) your name. 

The long interval that was supinely suffered to elapse 
had nearly taken all hope, when a recent letter from the 
Rev'd Mr. Scoresby, written at the instance of Lady Frank- 
lin, has reinvigorated me. In that letter, I am told that 
Lady F. and her friends place little reliance on the expedi- 
tion now being equipped by the Admiralty, and which is to 
pursue the route by Behring's Straits. Their greatest hope 
is in us and the eastern route. If that lady carries her 
intention into effect and comes to this country, I have little 
doubt that an expedition will be authorized. I use the 
term authorized, because Congress may not feel justified in 
appropriating money, especially for such an object, while 
its sanction or that of the Executive would be necessary to a 
military organization, without which, I presume, no officer 
of respectability would undertake it. 

Should it be undertaken and I be appointed to lead it, 



Beale Brings First Gold East 57 

will you embark with me? Do not answer with precipita- 
tion, for I know that you will never withdraw a pledge, and 
I only wish to receive one after full deliberation. 

If you decide to cast your lot with me, in the above event, 
I wotdd, of course, stipulate that you should be second in 
command. 

My reasons for applying to you are twofold — first physi- 
cal, for my own constitution is a weak, while yours, from all I 
can learn, is a vigorous and hardy one, and secondly, you 
have the moral qualities, unshrinking courage and in- 
domitable perseverance which are indispensable foi such an 
undertaking. 

It would be my aim to pass through Wellington Channel 
and make our winter quarters on the north shore of Mel- 
ville Island. If in our route thither we were unsuccessful 
in our search, I would during the winter despatch parties 
to the north to reach the pole if possible, the other to the 
west towards Behring's Straits — the members of each party 
to be surmounted on skates, with light boats fixed on 
metallic sleigh runners. If neither of those parties should 
discover the English ships or their crews, there would be no 
longer doubt of their having perished. When the summer 
opened, therefore, I would feel justified in making a bold 
push with the ship for Behring's Straits, through which if 
I could only succeed in carrying the Am. flags I could die 
content. Even at the worst it is a noble cause to die in: 
but you have endearing attachments to the world, and I 
would not have you thoughtlessly Hnk your fate with one 
so desolate as myself. 

Please answer this at your leisure and let no editor of a 
paper see or hear anything of it. 

Uncertain of your direction, I will send this to the 
department to be forwarded to you. 

With great respect. 
Your obt. serv't, 

W. F. Lynch, U. S. N. 

Baltimore, Jan'y ii, 1850. 



58 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Lieut. E. F. Beale, U. S. Navy. 

Washington Observatory, 

Feb. 28th. . 

Dear Sir: 

I am requested to sotmd you as to a private expedition 
after Sir John Franklin. If you will come up I will tell you 
all I know and all that I am authorized to say to you on this 
subject. In the meantime I am enjoined to regard the 
matter as a great secret which you are to help me to keep. 

Yours truly, 

M. F. Maury. 

I also reproduce one of the many letters which 
Beale received from Bayard Taylor at this time: 

"Tribune" Office, New York, 
March 26th, 1850. 
My dear Beale: 

What has become of you? That you are somewhere in 
the country I know and I send this note to Chester hoping 
it may reach you. I was in Washington two weeks ago but 
you were not there. I should have stopped a few hours at 
Chester had I not happened to be in the midnight train. 
Let me hear from you and don't attempt to go to California 
without passing through here. Stoddard tells me he has 
not seen you so I judge you have not been here yet. Are 
you going to California and when if so? or are you to be 
sent into the unknown Central Region? Let me know I 
pray you for I am anxious to hear from you and more 
anxious to see you. 

I had an odd, exciting, adventurous ride of it through 
Mexico and should like to compare notes with you. 

I am working day and night on my book^ and expect to 
get it through the press in two weeks, will you allow me to 
dedicate it to you? As the best friend and comrade I had 

' Eldorado or Adventures in the Path of Empire, by Bayard Taylor. 
George P. Putnam, New York; Richard Bentley, London, 1850. 



Beale Brings First Gold East 59 

on the trip it is properly owing to you. I shall try and 

make the volumes such as you will be satisfied with. 

Pray give my best regards to Mrs. Beale and believe me 

ever, 

Most faithfully yours, 

Bayard Taylor. 

It is interesting to note that from the moment 
of his first visit to California, Beale saw in his 
mind's eye the great city that was to grow up at the 
Golden Gate, and command the commerce of the 
Pacific. He had that instinct of prophecy, which 
is called "luck," in an eminent degree. On his 
return East, he often spoke to his mother and to his 
friends of the many opportunities that presented 
themselves for acquiring fortune in California; 
but for the most part his words fell upon deaf ears. 
Indeed, Mrs. Beale was very anxious at what she 
considered her son's inclination toward wildcat 
speculation. Though the daughter and the widow 
of naval officers, Mrs. Beale was in affluent cir- 
cumstances for those days, and she absolutely 
refused to follow her son's advice to purchase either 
for herself or for her children any of the large 
Mexican land grants, which were going begging 
at any price. In answer to her son's suggestions, 
Mrs. Beale said, quite emphatically, "What, buy 
land out in that wilderness ? Never ! ' ' 

The consequence of Mrs. Beale 's conservative 
views regarding Western investments was that her 
f oresighted son had to wait some years before lay- 
ing the foundation of his fortune, but, as he always 



6o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

stated, it was a wait that was worth while; that 
the feeling of independence and the knowledge of 
having won by unaided personal achievement was 
well worth the price. 

Though they did it with misgivings which they 
did not always seek to conceal, Beale was so young 
and anything but business-like, it was a fortunate 
day for Commodore Stockton and Mr. Aspinwall, 
the great New York merchant, when they confided 
their business interests in California to the young 
naval hero who, in view of his increasing family, 
had decided to resign from the service that he 
loved. 

Stockton, during his service on the Pacific 
Coast, had appreciated the promise of the new 
land and had been successful, when he left the 
Navy and was at liberty to do so, in interesting the 
great capitalists of the day in the ventures he 
entered upon after retiring from government ser- 
vice. Stockton had appreciated the opportunities, 
but his, in business, unpractised hand had failed to 
seize them. A huge outlay for the day was made 
and for long months there came no return. Mines 
had been purchased which on closer and more 
expert examination did not prove to be particularly 
rich in mineral or for some reason or other could 
not be profitably worked. Their purchasing agent 
in the East was continually shipping around the 
Horn, at great expense, machines which no one 
in California had any knowledge of how to use. 
Stockton was embarrassed by the outlay into 




a - 

'bh 'o 

Q 1 

O to 

^ 9 

o ^ 

a a 

-^ s 



Beale Brings First Gold East 6i 

which his enthusiasm had led him and Aspinwall 
had come to a point where he evidently doubted 
the wisdom of throwing good money after bad, and 
shortly after Beale reached California on his mis- 
sion of salvage all money supplies were cut off and 
willy-nilly the Stockton- Aspinwall enterprise had to 
become a going concern or go into bankruptcy. 

In this crisis Beale gave a foretaste of the remark- 
able business ability which distinguished him in 
after-life. He made a hurried trip to the mines and 
the haciendas in which his backers had invested 
with such haste. In the mines there was promise of 
wealth in the future and in the haciendas there was 
also the assurance of comfortable returns in later 
years, but for the present there was no money in 
sight and he knew nothing more could be ex- 
pected from the East, at least not for many months 
to come. In his journey Beale had personal 
experience of the difficulty of obtaining transpor- 
tation and of its costliness when once obtained, 
and like a flash the business inspiration came : the 
mines could wait and even the haciendas vegetate, 
gold-seekers thronged every trail and people were 
willing to pay any price to get to the river of 
Golden Sands. In a few days Beale had converted 
the great mining and real estate enterprise into 
a transportation concern, the mining experts were 
turned into the leaders of mule trains, book- 
keepers were learning how to drive, and Beale was 
king of all the transportation on the roads that led 
from Sacramento and Marysville to the American 



62 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Fork and the lands adjoining Sutter's ranch and 
mill, then the centre of the first mining region. 

Beale knew of course that this stream of passen- 
gers who were willing to pay any price for accommo- 
dations would not flow on forever. He worked 
the makeshift, however, for what it was worth and 
at the end of nine months, when they were expecting 
anjrthing but favorable news, he reported to his 
principals in the East that profits slightly exceeding 
one hundred thousand dollars were awaiting their 
orders. Rear- Admiral Harmony, U. S. N., retired, 
one of Beale's few surviving shipmates to whom the 
writer of this narrative is indebted for many per- 
sonal notes and intimate touches which could not 
otherwise have been obtained, relates that he rode 
on the Marysville stage with a pass from Ned Beale 
when a ticket would have cost him three months* 
pay, and that he witnessed a test which he did not 
expect even Beale's popularity to siu*vive. The 
company was charging one dollar a poimd to trans- 
port freight from Sacramento to the diggings and 
yet Ned Beale remained the most universally 
beloved man in the country. 

Before he went East the following year, to 
re-enter the Government service, though nothing 
was farther from his thoughts than so doing until 
he reached Washington, Beale had accumulated 
thirteen thousand dollars as his agreed percentage 
of the profits. With this money he made the 
intelligent investments which in ten years brought 
him to affluence and even to great wealth. He had 



Beale Brings First Gold East 63 

also earned and received a blessing from his old 
commander, Stockton, a fine sailor, but who was 
somewhat out of his element in business or 
politics. 



CHAPTER V 
First Steps in our Indian Policy 

Lieut. Beale Appointed by President Fillmore General 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and 
Nevada — Congress Appropriates Two Hundred and 
Fifty Thousand Dollars to Carry into Effect Beale's 
Plans — Indian Tribes to be Colonized and Protected 
on Reservations — Beale's Journey from the Valley 
of the Mississippi to California along the Central 
Route as Described by Himself and Mr. Heap 
— Westport, Kansas, and the "Stirrup Cup" — 
Fort Atkinson and Pike's Peak and the Huer- 
fano River — Plains of the Arkansas and Fort 
Massachusetts. 

ON Nov. nth, 1852, Lieutenant Beale, who 
was in Washington' at the time, was ap- 
pointed by President Fillmore General Su- 
perintendent of Indian Affairs for California and 

' There was some slight opposition to the appointment of Beale as 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Beale was opposed more as a Fre- 
mont man than for anything he had done himself. While the nomina- 
tion was before the Senate and still waiting confirmation, Fremont 
wrote a letter giving the most explicit denial to the charge that he, 
Fremont, had profited out of army contracts upon which he had passed 
in his official capacity. He further stated that Beale had never been 
connected with him "in any business transactions whatsoever," and 
the nomination was immediately confirmed. 

6d 



Our Indian Policies 65 

Nevada.^ Lieutenant Beale's views on all ques- 
tions relating to the welfare of the Indians were 
well known ; they had in fact indicated the appoint- 
ment which was duly confirmed by the Senate. 

At the time fears, which subsequent events 
showed were anything but idle, were freely ex- 
pressed that the growing friction between emigrants 
and settlers in California and the Indians would 
soon develop into a savage warfare all along 
the new and almost wholly unprotected frontier. 
Fillmore and Benton, the first of our statesmen to 
have an eye on the Pacific world, were convinced 
that Beale well understood the critical situation 
and was the one man available who cotild cope 
with it successfully. In consequence Beale re- 
ceived the appointment under which he was clothed 
with powers which were afterwards described in 
the Senate, and most correctly described, as being 
"vice-regal in breadth and scope and finality." 

On the third day of March, 1853, Congress, not 
to be behindhand, passed a law appropriating 
$250,000 for the purpose of carrying into effect the 

' The thought is suggested by the following almost illegible note among 
the Beale papers that while our Presidents are as hard worked as were 
their predecessors they most certainly do not begin business at such an 
early hour as President Fillmore would seem to have done. The note 
reads : 

"The president will meet you and myself at the White House on 

Tuesday morning at half-past seven o'clock. 

" R. W. — . 
"Lieut. Beale. March 27th, 1853." 

Unfortunately the last letter or rather initial of the friend who 
summoned Beale to this early morning conference with the President is 
hopelessly illegible. 
5 



66 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

plan which Lieutenant Beale had proposed for 
the better protection, subsistence, and coloniz- 
ation of the Indian tribes within his superin- 
tendency. 

The President having given his approval to this 
plan. Lieutenant Beale was instructed to proceed 
forthwith by the shortest route to his superinten- 
dency, and to select lands most suitable for Indian 
reservations. He was also directed, in connection 
with this plan, to examine the Territories of New 
Mexico and Utah, where their frontiers and those 
of California lie contiguous, and to ascertain 
whether lands existed there to which the California 
Indians might, with advantage, be removed. 

The route selected by Lieutenant Beale was, in 
conformity with his instructions, the shortest and 
most direct to California, and it also enabled him 
to examine, with the least delay, the localities to 
which it was believed that the Indians of California 
might be removed with advantage to themselves, 
should suitable lands for the purpose be found. 

While Lieutenant Beale was collecting his party 
and arranging the transportation problems which 
the adventurous journey imposed, he was joined 
in the undertaking by his kinsman, Mr. Gw4nn 
Harris Heap, who was also desirous of proceeding 
to California. Together they determined to com- 
bine with the hazards of an overland journey, a 
preliminary survey of a route for the railway which 
even at this early day was in contemplation, from 
the Valley of the Mississippi to California, which 



Our Indian Policies 67 

quaintly enough Mr. Heap always refers to in his 
journal as "our Pacific possessions." ' 

We left Washington on the 20th of April, and 
arrived at St. Louis the 2d, Kanzas the 5th, and 
Westport the 6th of May. 

Westport is a thriving place, situated four miles 
from Kanzas ; and emigrants from Missouri to Cali- 
fornia and Oregon make either this place or Inde- 
pendence their starting-point. At both towns all 
necessary supplies can be obtained at reasonable 
rates, and their merchants and mechanics, being 
constantly required to supply the wants of travel- 
lers on the plains, keep on hand such articles as are 
best adapted for an overland journey. Kanzas, a 
newer place, is also thriving, and a fine river landing. 
Our party was composed of twelve persons, viz : 

E. F. Beale, Superintendent of Indian 
Affairs in California. 

G. Harris Heap. 

Elisha Riggs, of Washington. 

William Riggs " 

William Rogers ** " 

Henry Young. 

J. Wagner. 

J. COSGROVE. 

'In 1854, the account of this journey, taken from the journals of 
Lieutenant Beale and of Mr. Heap, was published in Philadelphia by 
Lippincott and in London by Triibner. These journals are of course 
largely drawn upon in the following chapters for a description of what 
the pioneers called the Central Route to the Pacific and for many of 
the interesting adventures which befell them on the way. 



68 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Richard Brown (a Delaware Indian). 
Gregorio Madrid (a Mexican). 
Jesus Garcia (a Mexican). 
George Simms (colored man). 

May 15. All our arrangements being com- 
pleted, we started from Westport at 3 P.M. A 
party of ladies and gentlemen accompanied us a 
few miles into the prairie, and drank a "stirrup 
cup" of champagne to the success of our journey. 
The weather was bright and clear, and, after a 
pleasant ride of twelve miles over prairies enam- 
elled with flowers, we encamped at thirty minutes 
after six p.m. on Indian Creek, a tributary of the 
Kanzas, fringed with a thick growth of cotton- 
woods and willows. Day's march, 12 miles. 

May 18. We had a severe thunder and rain 
storm, which lasted all night; the wind blew strong 
from the southward, and the lightning was inces- 
sant and vivid. One of those balls of fire which 
sometimes descend to the earth during violent 
thunderstorms, fell and exploded in our midst. 
The mules, already terrified by the constant peals 
of thunder, became frantic with fear; and when 
this vivid light was seen, accompanied with a report 
like the crack of a rifle, neither picket-pins nor 
hobbles could hold them; they rushed through the 
camp, overturning everything in their course — 
their ropes and halters lashing right and left, and 
increasing their panic. They were stopped by an 
elbow of the creek, where they were found a few 



Our Indian Policies 69 

minutes after, huddled together, and quivering 
with fear. It was fortunate for us that they did 
not take to the open prairie, as we would have had 
much difificulty in recovering them. This was our 
first experience in a stampede, and to prevent a 
recurrence of such accidents we after this placed 
the animals in the centre, and, dividing our party 
into twos and threes, slept in a circle around them. 
By using such precautions we were never subjected 
to this annoyance again, except once, after entering 
the country of the Utahs. 

A ride of twenty-five miles brought us to a hollow, 
where, finding good water, we encamped. Resting 
but a short time we continued our journey and in 
ten miles, over a rich rolling country, arrived at 
Council Grove, where our train was waiting for us. 

Council Grove is situated in a rich grassy bottom, 
well watered and heavily timbered. It is a settle- 
ment of about twenty frame and log houses, and 
scattered up and down the stream are several 
Indian villages. At a short distance from the 
road is a large and substantially built Methodist 
mission-house constructed of limestone, which is 
found here in inexhaustible quantities. This stone 
is excellent as a building material and lies in strata 
of from six inches to three feet in thickness ; lintels 
and arches are made of it as it is extracted from the 
quarries, which extend for fifteen miles up the 
stream. Day's march, 32 miles; total distance, 
122 miles. 

Since our departure from Westport we had seen 



70 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

many graves on each side of the road, and some of 
the camping-places had the appearance of village 
graveyards. The cholera raged on the plains a 
few years ago, occasioning a fearful mortality, 
and these mounds remain to attest its ravages. 
Through carelessness or haste, they were often too 
shallow to protect their contents from the wolves, 
and it frequently happened that he who in the 
morning was hastening forward in health and 
spirits towards the golden bourne, was ere night 
a mangled corpse, his bones scattered by the savage 
hunger of the wolf, over the plain. 

May 20. Resumed our march at noon, and 
travelled over a fiat uninteresting country with 
little water. This day saw antelope for the first 
time. Met Major Rucker, and Lieutenants Heath 
and Robinson on their way from New Mexico to 
Fort Leavenworth. They informed us that at a 
short distance in advance of us were large bands of 
buffalo. Encamped, as the sun was setting, on a 
brook called Turkey Creek, where we found an 
abundant supply of water, but no wood. We 
here overtook Mr. Antoine Leroux, on his way to 
Taos, and considered ourselves fortunate in se- 
curing the services of so experienced a guide. He 
did not join us at once, as he was desirous of seeing 
his train safely over one or two bad places in 
advance of us, but promised to overtake us in a 
day or two. Day's march, 35 miles; distance from 
Westport, 1 89 miles. 

May 2 1 . We were all on the lookout for buffa- 



Our Indian Policies 71 

loes. It was five days since we had left V/estport, 
and as yet our eyes had not been gladdened by the 
sight of even one. Hoping to fall in with them 
more readily by diverging from the beaten track, 
I left the party soon after sunrise, and turning to 
the left, went a few miles in the direction of the 
Arkansas. After a ride of two hours, I observed 
afar off many dark objects which resembled trees 
skirting the horizon, but, after a closer scrutiny, 
their change of position convinced me that they 
were buffaloes. I slowly approached them, and, 
in order to obtain a nearer view without giving 
them the alarm, dismounted, and, urging my 
horse forward, concealed myself behind him. I 
thus got within a hundred yards of the herd. 
Bands of antelope and prairie wolves were in- 
termingled with the buffaloes, who had come 
down to a rivulet to drink. Of the latter 
some were fighting, others wallowing, drinking, 
or browsing. I was just congratulating myself 
upon my ruse in getting so near to them, this being 
my first sight of these noble animals, when my 
horse, suddenly raising his head, uttered such a 
sonorous neigh as put the whole troop to flight. 
Away they galloped, one band after another taking 
the alarm, until the whole herd, numbering several 
thousand, was in motion, and finally disappearing 
in clouds of dust. Despairing of getting such 
another opportunity for a shot, I reluctantly 
turned my horse's head in the direction where I 
supposed the rest of the party to be. A few hours' 



72 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

ride brought me back to them. They too had 
fallen in with buffaloes, and, in their eagerness to 
secure the first prize, each man had taken two or 
three shots at a straggling old bull, an exile from 
the herd; he fell, pierced with twenty -three balls. 
He was, however, too old and tough to be eaten, 
and was left for his friends, the coyotes. 

Buffaloes now became such an ordinary occur- 
rence that the novelty soon wore off, and we had 
more humps, tongues, and marrow-bones than 
the greatest gourmand could have desired. 

May 22. We had already overtaken and passed 
several large wagon and cattle trains from Texas 
and Arkansas, mostly bound to California. With 
them were many women and children; and it 
was pleasant to stroll into their camps in the 
evening and witness the perfect air of comfort and 
being-at-home that they presented. Their wagons 
drawn up in a circle, gave them at least an appear- 
ance of seciuity ; and within the inclosure the men 
either reclined around the campfires, or were busy 
in repairing their harness or cleaning their arms. 
The females milked the cows and prepared the 
supper; and we often enjoyed the hot cakes and 
fresh milk of which they invited us to partake. 
Tender infants in their cradles were seen under the 
shelter of the wagons, thus early inured to hard 
travel. Carpets and rocking chairs were drawn 
out, and what would perhaps shock some of our 
fine ladies, fresh -looking girls, whose rosy lips were 
certainly never intended to be defiled by the 



Our Indian Policies 73 

vile weed, sat around the fire, smoking the old- 
fashioned corn-cob pipe. 

May 23. We were again on the road at sunrise, 
and travelled thirty-one miles to the Pawnee Fork 
of the Arkansas. The sun was excessively hot, but 
towards noon its heat was tempered by a pleasant 
breeze from the northwest; crossed many gullies, 
which carry water only after heavy rains. We 
passed, on the right of the road, a remarkable butte, 
or spur of the hills, projecting into the plain, and 
presenting a broad surface of smooth rock, thickly 
inscribed with names. This landmark is known 
as "The Pawnee Rock." 

May 25. We were glad to saddle up at sunrise, 
and in five miles reached Fort Atkinson, where 
Major Johnson, the officer in command, gave us a 
cordial reception. Several large bands of Indians, 
of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes, were con- 
gregated around the fort, awaiting the arrival of 
Major Fitzpatrick, Indian Agent, whom they daily 
expected. As it continued to rain without inter- 
mission all day, we concluded to pass the night in 
the fort, where Major Johnson had provided com- 
fortable accommodations for us. Orders had just 
been received to remove this post to Pawnee Fork 
of the Arkansas, one hundred miles nearer the 
settlements. It will there be of very little service, 
for it is already too near to the frontiers. 

The timber at Pawnee Fork being mostly cotton- 
woods, it is not suitable for building purposes; 
though at Fort Atkinson there is none whatever 



74 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

nearer than fifteen miles; and it was with some 
difficiilty that we obtained a few small logs for our 
men, who were encamped at a short distance, under 
tents borrowed from the fort. All the houses are 
in a dilapidated condition ; a few are built of adobe 
(sun-dried bricks) but the greater part are con- 
structed of sods. Emigrants frequently stop here 
to settle their difficulties with Indians, and with 
each other, Major Johnson administering justice 
in a prompt and impartial manner. A few days 
before our arrival, a quarrel having occurred be- 
tween a party of emigrants and some Cheyenne 
Indians, which ended in blows, Major Johnson, 
upon investigation, finding that an American was 
the aggressor, immediately ordered him back to the 
States. Mr. Leroux being still too ill to continue 
the journey, remained here under the care of the 
surgeon of the post; and Mr. W. Riggs, desiring 
to return to the States, took leave of us at this 
point. Day's travel, 5 miles; whole distance, 361 
miles. 

May 26. Although it still continued to rain, we 
left Fort Atkinson at noon, and travelled up the 
left bank of the Arkansas. The trail from Inde- 
pendence to Santa Fe crosses the Arkansas ten 
miles above Fort Atkinson; and there is another 
crossing five miles higher up. 

May 29. At sunrise, recrossed the river to its 
left bank, grass still coarse and rank. The water 
of the Arkansas is very similar in color and taste to 
that of the Missouri. As we coasted up the left 



Our Indian Policies 75 

bank the grass became coarser and scantier. 
Passed a singular slaty mound on the right of the 
road, resembling a pyramid in ruins. Encamped 
at noon near a slough of the river. There was no 
wood near enough for use ; but the general resource 
in such cases on the plains was scattered in abun- 
dance around us. The sun was very hot, but at 
times tempered by a light breeze from the north- 
westward. A wagon and cattle train of emigrants 
encamped near us. In the afternoon, we ascended 
the river eight miles, and encamped near the stream 
in coarse, wiry grass, as in fact it has been for 
several days past. The country a few miles from 
the river has scanty grass and dry arid soil. In 
the evening, we had a large company of emigrants 
on each side of us. Day's travel, 36 miles; whole 
distance, 483 miles. 

June 2. Left the Timpas at early dawn, and 
discerned at a distance of fifteen miles several 
high buttes, bearing due west, in a line with the 
southern end of the Sierra Mojada; towards these 
we now directed our course. The country was 
gradually rolling towards the buttes, and covered 
with abtmdant bunch grass; the prickly pear, or 
cactus, which grows in clusters close to the ground, 
was at times very distressing to our mules; their 
constant efforts to avoid treading on this annoying 
plant gave them an uneasy, jerking gait, very har- 
assing to their riders during a long day's march. ; 

Upon reaching the summit of the buttes, a mag- 
nificent and extensive panorama was opened to 



76 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

our view. The horizon was bounded on the north 
by Pike's Peak, northwest and west by the Sierra 
Mojada, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and Spanish 
Peaks; to the south and east extended the prairie, 
lost in the hazy distance. On the gently undulat- 
ing plains, reaching to the foot of the mountains, 
could be traced the courses of the Arkansas and 
Sage Creek by their lines of timber. The Apispah, 
an affluent of the Arkansas, issuing from the Sierra 
Mojada, was concealed from sight by a range of 
intervening buttes, while the object of our search, 
the Huerfano, flowed at our feet, distant about 
three miles, its course easy to be distinguished 
from the point where it issued from the mountains 
to its junction with the Arkansas, except at short 
intervals, where it passed through canyons in the 
plain. Pike's Peak, whose head was capped with 
eternal snows, was a prominent object in the land- 
scape, soaring high above all neighboring summits. 
Descending the buttes to the Huerfano, we 
encamped on it about five miles above its mouth. 
A bold and rapid stream, its waters were turbid, 
but sweet and cool; the river-bottom was broad, 
and thickly wooded with willows and cottonwoods 
interlaced with the wild rose and grape-vine, and 
carpeted with soft grass — a sylvan paradise. This 
stream was about twenty-five yards in breadth, 
and five feet deep close to the bank. Bands of 
antelope and deer dotted the plain, one of which 
served us for supper, brought down by the unerring 
rifle of Dick, the Delaware. 




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Our Indian Policies ^^ 

June 4. I rode ahead of camp, to Huerfano 
Butte, a remarkable mound, bearing north from 
the southernmost Spanish Peak, and about fifty- 
yards from the right bank of the river; its appear- 
ance was that of a huge artificial mound of stones, 
covered half-way up from its base with a dense 
growth of bushes. It is probably of volcanic origin 
and there are many indications in this region of the 
action of internal fires. 

Our ride to-day was full of interest, for we weie 
now approaching the Sangre de Cristo Pass, in the 
Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We had been travel- 
ling for eighteen days, over an uninterrupted plain, 
until its monotony had become extremely weari- 
some. The mountain scenery, which we entered 
soon after raising camp this morning, was of the 
most picturesque description. We crossed the 
Huerfano seven miles above the butte; at this 
point it issues from a canyon one hundred and fifty 
yards in length; above it the valley, watered by 
the Huerfano, forms a beautiful plain of small 
extent, surrounded by lofty and well-wooded 
mountains ; numerous rills trickle down their sides, 
irrigate the plain, and join their waters to those 
of the Huerfano, which are here clear and cold. We 
did not enter this valley, but left the Huerfano after 
crossing it, and followed up the bed of one of its 
tributaries, the Cuchada, a small brook rising near 
the summit of the Sangre de Cristo Pass. 

This small valley of the Huerfano contains about 
six hundred acres, and forms a most ravishing pic- 



78 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

ture; it would be a good place for recruiting cattle 
after their weary march across the plains, as they 
would be perfectly secure and sheltered, and the 
pasturage is excellent. This, however, is the case 
all through these mountains, for waving grass, 
gemmed with flowers of every hue, covers them 
to their summits, except in the region of snow. 
The Cuchada led us up a succession of valleys of 
an easy grade. We were now travelling on an 
Indian trail; for the wagon trail, which I believe 
was made by Roubindeau's wagons, deviated to 
the right, and went through the pass named after 
him. This pass is so low that we perceived through 
it a range of sand hills of moderate height, in San 
Luis Valley; to have gone through it, however, 
would have occasioned us the loss of a day in 
reaching Fort Massachusetts, though it is the 
shortest and most direct route to the Coochatope; 
and Mr. Beale's views constrained him to take the 
most direct route to Fort Massachusetts, where 
he expected to obtain a guide through the unex- 
plored country between New Mexico and Utah, 
and also to procure some mules. We were there- 
fore very reluctantly compelled to forego the 
examination of Roubindeau's Pass. 

Encamped at noon at the foot of a remarkable 
rock, watered at its base by the Cuchada; it resem- 
bled the ruined front of a Gothic church. En- 
camped for the night six miles farther up the valley, 
and near the summit of the Sangre de Crist o Pass. 
An excellent wagon road might be m.ade over these 



Our Indian Policies 79 

mountains, by the Sangre de Cristo Pass, and a 
still better one through Roubindeau's. 

The grass around our encampment was really 
magnificent; it was in a large mountain meadow, 
watered by numerous springs and girt in by dark 
pines. Through an opening in the mountains, to 
the eastward, we could see the sunny plains of the 
Arkansas and Huerfano, with its remarkable butte, 
whilst around us heavy clouds were collecting, 
giving warning of a storm and wet night. We 
made ourselves shelters and beds of pine boughs. 
The Delaware had killed a fat antelope, which 
furnished us a hearty supper; and we sat around 
our fire until a late hour, well pleased with having 
accomplished in such good time and without acci- 
dent the first stage of our journey, for we expected 
to reach Fort Massachusetts at an early hour next 
day. Day's march, 26 miles; total distance, 668 
miles. 

June 5. After crossing Indian Creek, we halted 
a few minutes to make our toilets previous to our 
arrival at Fort Massachusetts, and, although our 
hunter had just ridden into camp with a haunch 
of fat venison behind his saddle, and our appetites, 
which were at all times excellent, had been sharp- 
ened by a long mountain ride without breakfast, 
we were too impatient to reach the fort to lose 
time in camping. We arrived there late in the 
afternoon, and received a warm and hospitable 
welcome from Major Blake, the officer in command, 
and from Lieutenants Jackson and Johnson, and 



8o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Dr. Magruder. An incipient rainstorm made us feel 
sensible that we were still in the vicinity of the 
Sierra Mojada (or Wet Mountains), which well 
merit the name, for rain fell every day that we 
were in or near them; on the highest peaks in the 
form of snow, and lower down in hazy moisture, 
alternating with drenching showers. 

This humidity gives great fertility to this region, 
and the country bordering on the sides of these 
mountains, as well as the valleys within their 
recesses, are unequalled in loveliness and richness 
of vegetation. To the settler, they offer every 
inducement; and I have no doubt that in a few 
years this tract of country will vie with California 
or Australia in the number of immigrants it will 
invite to it. It is by far the most beautiful as well 
as the most fertile portion of New Mexico, and a 
remarkably level country unites it with the western 
frontier of the Atlantic States. As soon as this is 
thrown open to settlement, a continuous line of 
farms will be established, by which the agricultural 
and mineral wealth of this region will be developed. 
Communication will then be more rapid, and 
instead of the mail being, as it is now, thirty days 
in reaching Fort Massachusetts, it will be carried 
through in eight or ten. 

Messrs. Beale, Riggs, Rogers, and myself quar- 
tered at the fort ; the men encamped two miles below 
on Utah Creek, in a beautiful grove of cottonwoods. 
A tent was sent to them, and with fresh bread and 
meat they were soon rendered perfectly comfort- 




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Our Indian Policies 8i 

able. There was excellent pasturage around their 
encampment, on which the mules soon forgot the 
hard marches they had made since leaving West- 
port. Day's travel, 25 miles; total distance from 
Westport to Fort Massachusetts, 693 miles. 

June 14. As it was found impossible to obtain 
here the men and animals that we required, and 
that it would be necessary to go to Taos, and per- 
haps to Santa Fe, for this purpose, Mr. Beale and 
Major Blake left for the former place on the morn- 
ing after our arrival at the fort. Taos is about 
eighty, and Santa Fe about one hundred and forty 
miles to the southward. 

The cavalry at Fort Massachusetts numbered 
seventy-five men, of whom forty-five were mounted. 
Though their horses were excellently groomed, 
and stabled, and kept in high condition on corn, at 
six dollars a bushel, they would break down on a 
march in piu"suit of Indians mounted on horses 
fed on grass, and accustomed to gallop at half 
speed up or down the steepest hills. Corn-fed 
animals lose their strength when they are put on 
grass, and do not soon get accustomed to the 
change of diet. Of this fact the officers at the 
fort were perfectly sensible, and regretted that 
they were not better prepared for any sudden 
emergency. 

Lieutenant Beale retimied from the southern 
country late in the afternoon of this day, and 
brought with him a guide, and a Mexican arriero 
(muleteer) ; they were cousins, and both named 



82 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Felipe Archilete. Jesus Garcia was discharged 
here, and Patrick Dolan, a soldier who had served 
out his time, hired in his place. Our party now 
numbered fourteen. 

The guide, Felipe Archilete, or "Peg-leg," for 
it was by this sobriquet that he was commonly 
known to Americans, deserves particular mention. 
He had spent the greater part of his life trading 
and trapping in the Indian country, and his accu- 
rate knowledge of the region between the Arkansas 
and Sevier River in Utah Territory, as well as his 
acquaintance with the Utah tongue, promised to 
render him of great service to us in the absence of 
Mr. Leroux. A few years ago, in a skirmish with 
the Utahs, he was wounded in the left ankle with 
a rifle ball, which completely crippled his foot, and 
compelled him to use at times a wooden leg, which 
he carried suspended to his waist. Notwithstand- 
ing his lameness, he was one of the most active 
men of the party, and was always the foremost in 
times of difificulty and danger. 

Diuing Lieutenant Beale's absence, I replen- 
ished our provisions from the sutler's store, and 
had a small supply of biscuit baked; a bullock, 
which I had purchased from the quartermaster, 
was cut up and jerked by the Delaware, and the 
mules were reshod, and a supply of spare shoes 
and nails obtained. They were completely rested, 
and in even better condition than when we started 
from Westport; after a general overhauling of the 
camp equipage by the men, everything was put in 



Our Indian Policies 83 

order for resuming our journey, as soon as Lieu- 
tenant Beale should return. 

June 15. Bidding adieu to our kind friends at 
the fort, we resumed our journey at noon, and 
travelled down Utah Creek south-southwest, until it 
debouched in the valley of San Luis, when we 
altered our course to west by north. In six miles 
from Fort Massachusetts, we crossed the trail of 
Roubindeau's wagons from the upper Arkansas 
settlements; they entered through Roubindeau's 
Pass in the Sierra Mojada. After crossing it, our 
route led us over a level plain covered with arte- 
misia, cacti, and patches of the nutritious grama. 
A ride of twenty-five miles brought us at dark to a 
slough of the Rio del Norte, where we encamped. 
Day's march, 25 miles; total distance from West- 
port, 718 miles. 

June 18. On resuming our march in the 
afternoon, we ascended the small valley, as it 
shortened the distance a couple of miles, and 
re-entered that of the Sahwatch. After a ride of 
eight miles we crossed Sahwatch Creek, its waters 
reaching to our saddles, and encamped as the sun 
was setting, at the entrance ot the celebrated 
Coochatope Pass. 



CHAPTER VI 

Across the Plains in '53 

From Coochatope Pass to Grand River — A Taste of Moun- 
tain Sheep — The Great Divide — Murderous Work of 
Utah Indians — Arrival at the Uncompagre River — 
The Swollen Fork of the Colorado — Raft Built and 
Abandoned — The Slough of Despond — Building a 
Canoe — Forlorn Plight of Pack Mules — Shipwreck and 
Inventory of Losses — Expedition Separated by River 
but United by Common Misfortunes — Gallant Swim- 
mers — Beale Decides to Send to Taos in New Mexico 
to P-eplenish his Supplies — Mr. Heap's Journey to the 
Settlements — A Miserable Night — "Peg-leg" and the 
Venerable Utah — The Lonely Squaw — Arrival at Taos 
— Mr. Leroux and Supplies. 

COOCHATOPE PASS is a wonderful gap, or, 
more properly speaking, a natural gate, 
as its name denotes, in the Utah language. 
On each side, mountains rise in abrupt and rocky 
precipices, the one on the eastern side being the 
highest. We climbed up the one on the left, v^^hich 
is but a confused mass of rocks, but in their crevi- 
ces were many beautiful and sweet-scented flow- 
ers. The bottom of the pass was level and at right 
angles with Sah watch Valley ; and we had thus far 

84 



Across the Plains in '53 85 

reached twenty-five miles into the mountains, 
from San Luis Valley, without any apparent change 
of level. Singular as it may appear, it is neverthe- 
less a fact that, notwithstanding the distance that 
we had penetrated into these mountains, had it 
not been for the course of the waters it would have 
been difficult to have determined whether we were 
ascending or descending. 

A stream issues from Coochatope Pass and joins 
the Sah watch; it is called Coochumpah by the 
Utahs, and Rio de los Cibolos by the Mexicans; 
both names have the same signification — River of 
Buffaloes. Coochatope signifies, in the Utah lan- 
guage, Buffalo Gate, and the Mexicans have the 
same name for it. El Puerto de los Cibolos. The 
pass and creek are so called from the large herds of 
these animals which entered Sahwatch and San 
Luis Valleys through this pass, from the Three 
Parks and Upper Arkansas, before they were des- 
troyed, or the direction of their migration changed, 
by the constant warfare carried on against them by 
Indians and New Mexicans. A few still remain in 
the mountains and are described as very wild and 
savage. We saw a great number of elk-horns 
scattered through these valleys; and, from the 
comparatively fresh traces of buffaloes, it was 
evident that many had visited the pass quite 
recently. 

Our Delaware, in commemoration of our arrival 
at this point, killed a mountain sheep, and soon a 
dozen sticks were around the fire, on which were 



86 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

roasting pieces of this far-famed meat ; but this was 
a bad specimen, being both old and tough. Day's 
travel, 22 miles ; total distance, 808 miles. 

We resumed our journey at 5:30 a.m. and, 
having travelled two miles, reached the forks of the 
Coochumpah, taking the west fork up the valley, 
which here commenced to ascend at an easy grade. 
The mountainsides were clothed with fine timber, 
among which were pines, firs, and aspens, and the 
valley with the most luxuriant grass and clover, 
this being the first clover we had seen. Around 
us were scattered numerous elk-horns and buffalo 
skulls. Eight miles brought us to a remarkable 
cliff, about one hundred feet in height, which 
beetled over the trail on our left; nine miles from 
the "Gate," we saw the last water flowing east to 
the Atlantic; in five minutes we were on the cul- 
minating point of the pass, and in ten more crossed 
the first stream flowing west to the Pacific. It 
was almost as if we were standing with one foot in 
waters which found their way to the Gulf of 
Mexico and the other in those losing themselves in 
the Gulf of California. 

In our eagerness to explore this pass to its 
western outlet. Lieutenant Beale and I rode far 
ahead of the remainder of the party. The scenery 
was grand and beautiful beyond description. 
Lofty mountains, their summits covered with 
eternal snows, lifted their heads to the clouds, 
whilst in our immediate vicinity were softly 
rounded hills clothed with grass, flowers, and rich 



Across the Plains in '53 87 

meadows, through which numerous rills trickled 
to join their waters to Coochatope Creek. 

At noon we encamped on this stream, where it 
had already swollen to a considerable size. It is 
a tributary of Grand River, east fork of the Great 
Colorado. Near camp was a lofty and steep hill, 
which I ascended to obtain a better view of the 
country; one of its principal features was the 
Coochatope Mountain to the southeast, high, 
round, and dark with pines. 

June 20. The usual cry of "catch up" set the 
camp in motion at 5:45 a.m. We travelled 
twenty -two miles over a rolling country, more 
hilly than our route of the previous day, and 
encamped on a rivulet at noon. Our course was 
south by west. The hillsides and mountains were 
still covered with a thick growth of pines and 
aspens; wild flowers adorned the murmuring 
streams, and beautified the waving grass. Every 
few hundred yards we came to one of these purling 
brooks, the haunt of the timid deer, who bounded 
away at our approach. To the westward, the 
Eagle Range (La Sierra del Aguila) towered high 
above the surrounding mountains, its summits 
capped with snow, some patches of which we 
passed near our trail. Lieutenant Beale shot a spe- 
cies of grouse, larger than a prairie hen, and caught 
one of her young. At 5:30 p.m., five miles from 
our noon camp, we crossed the two forks of the 
Jaroso (Willow) Creek, a strong stream running 
into Grand River, not laid down on any map. At 



88 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

7 P.M. we rested for the night in a valley watered 
by a small shallow brook, very marshy, and 
swarming with mosquitoes. Our general course 
this day was southwest. Numbers of deer and 
antelopes were seen ; indeed, these sheltered valleys 
seem expressly intended as coverts for these gentle 
animals. 

About a mile before reaching the Jaroso, we 
crossed a valley where a party of Americans were 
cruelly murdered by the Utahs, in the spring of 
this year. Five Americans and a few Mexicans 
were driving sheep to California by this route, and, 
from some cause which I did not ascertain, a dis- 
agreement arose between them and a band of 
Utahs, who were still here in their winter-quarters. 
The latter forbade their passing through their 
country, and placing a row of elk-horns across the 
valley, threatened them with instant death if they 
crossed that line. The whites, deeming this a vain 
threat, attempted to force their way through, were 
attacked, and all killed. The elk-horns were still 
in the position in which the Indians had placed 
them. Our guide, Felipe, had an account of this 
affair from Utahs who had been actors in the affray. 
At this point the trail from the Del Norte through 
the Camero Pass joins that through the Coocha- 
tope. Traders from Abiquiu come by it into these 
mountains to barter for peltries with the Utahs. 
Day's travel, 34 miles; total, 876 miles. 

June 21. Raised camp at 4:45 a.m. and trav- 
elled five miles west by south, crossing a steep 



Across the Plains in '53 89 

and rocky hill covered with pines, and in five miles 
entered a small valley watered by the Rio de la 
Laguna (Lake Creek). 

It became a question with us, how our packs were 
to be transported over the Laguna without getting 
them wet or lost, and we at first attempted to make 
a bridge by felling a tall pine across the stream, 
but it fell partly into the water, and the current 
carried it away, tearing it into pieces. This plan 
having failed another was adopted, suggested by 
what Mr. Beale had seen in his travels in Panama, 
and the mode of crossing the plunging torrents 
of the Andes, which was entirely successful. 

Mr. Rogers selected a point where the stream 
was for some distance free from rocks, and suc- 
ceeded, after a severe struggle, in swimming across; 
and one of the men mounting a stray Indian pony, 
which we found quietly grazing in the valley, 
dashed in after him, and also effected a landing on 
the opposite side. To them a light line was thrown, 
and having thus established a communication with 
the other side, a larger rope was drawn over by 
them, and tied firmly to a rock near the water's 
edge. The end of the rope on our side was made 
fast to the top of a pine tree, a backstay preventing 
it from bending to the weight of the loads sent 
over. An iron hook was now passed over the rope, 
and by means of a sling our packs were suspended 
to it. The hook slid freely from the top of the 
tree down to the rock ; and when the load was taken 
off, we drew the hook and sling back to our side by 



90 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

a string made fast to it. The last load sent over 
was our wearing apparel, and just after parting 
with it, a violent hailstorm broke over us, making 
us glad to seek shelter from its fury under rocks and 
trees. Most of the day was thus consumed and 
it was not until 5 p.m. that we motmted our miiles 
and swam them across. The water was icy cold, 
and some of the animals had a narrow escape from 
drowning. We, however, saddled up immediately, 
and proceeding four miles from the creek, 
encamped for the night in a small hollow. On 
leaving the Rio de la Lagima, the road ascended a 
high steep hill. The country travelled over this 
day was abundantly grassed, the hills timbered 
with firs, pines, and aspens, and the streams shaded 
with willows. Day's travel, 9 miles; total, 885 
miles. 

June 23. At an early hour in the morning, 
Lieut. Beale, Felipe Archilete, the Delaware, and 
I, taking the lead, arrived at the River Uncom- 
pagre at 11:10 a.m. We travelled about twelve 
miles parallel with this river, and found it every- 
where a broad rapid stream, entirely too rapid 
and swift to ford with safety; we therefore con- 
tinued down its right bank until we reached Grand 
River. 

We had been prepared to find Grand River 
swollen, for its tributaries which we had crossed 
were all at their highest stage of water; but 
we had not anticipated so mighty a stream. It 
flowed with a loud and angry current, its amber- 




The Method of Crossing Laguna Creek 

From a Lithograph 



Across the Plains in '53 91 

colored waters roaring sullenly past, laden with 
the wrecks of trees uprooted by their fury. Sounds 
like the booming of distant artillery, occasioned by 
the caving in of its clay and sand banks, con- 
stantly smote our ears. This fork of the Colorado 
rises in the Middle Park, and gathers all its head- 
waters in that enclosure, and is described by Fre- 
mont, who crossed it there, as being a large river, 
one hundred and thirty yards wide where it breaks 
through its mountain rim and flows southwest. 
Between that point and where we approached 
it numerous streams contribute their waters to 
increase its volume, and where we now stood, 
anxiously gazing at its flood, it had spread to a 
breadth of over two hundred and fifty yards. 

As it was evident that this river was nowhere ford- 
able it was determined to commence at once the 
construction of a raft. A place where dead wood 
was found in abundance was selected for encamp- 
ment, and to reach it it was necessary to cross a 
broad slough, where the mules sank to their bellies 
in the mud; the packs were carried over on our 
heads. This brought us to an island of loose, 
rotten soil, covered with greasewood and some 
coarse grass. We had no shelter from the sun, 
which was intensely hot, and the mosquitoes and 
gadflies were perfectly terrific. 

From this point, the Pareamoot Mountains were 
in full view; they ranged from the north, and 
terminated in an abrupt declivity on the west- 
ern side of Grand River, opposite the mouth of 



92 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the Uncompagre. They were described to me as 
abounding in game, and well timbered; on their 
plateaus, are fine lakes filled with excellent fish, 
rich meadows, abundant streams, every natural 
attraction, in fact, to induce settlement. 

Our guide, Felipe, had spent three years in them, 
trapping and hunting, and said that there is no 
richer country on the continent. Those moun- 
tains are not laid down on any map. Day's travel, 
28 miles; total distance, 951 miles. 

June 24. Whilst most of the party were busily 
occupied in collecting and cutting logs, construct- 
ing the raft, and transporting the packs, saddles, 
etc., to the point of embarkation, which had to be 
done in deep mud, and under a scorching sun, 
others explored the banks of the river, to ascertain 
whether a place could be found where the caval- 
cade could be crossed over. The river was exam- 
ined several miles above our encampment, but its 
banks on our side were everywhere so marshy as 
to prevent the approach of the mules to the water's 
edge. At the encampment the ground was firmer 
but we feared to drive them into the river at this 
point, as it was here not only very rapid and broad, 
but its opposite banks, as far down as we could 
see, were marshy and covered with a thick jungle, 
from which our mules, after the exhaustion of 
swimming across so swift a current, would have 
been unable to extricate themselves. 

Towards noon the raft was completed, but we 
were far from feeling confident about crossing at 



Across the Plains in '53 93 

this point. Archilete, who was well acquainted 
with all the fords and crossing-places, stated that 
perhaps a better point might be found a few miles 
below the mouth of the Uncompagre, which flowed 
into Grand River a short distance below us. As it 
was evident that it would be risking the entire 
loss of our animals and packs to attempt to cross 
them here, it was determined to abandon the raft 
and to move camp farther down without delay. 
Everything was again transported to the main 
shore across the slough. The animals had much 
difficulty in crossing this place, even without loads ; 
with them, they sank hopelessly into the mud, from 
which it was very difficult to drag them out. 

A more dirty, begrimed, and forlorn-looking 
party was never seen; we were covered with mud 
to our waists; wherever the mosquitoes and gad- 
flies could reach our skin they improved the oppor- 
tunity most industriously, and most of the men 
were covered with blisters and welts. All cheer- 
fully took a share in this labor, but a volley of 
execrations was poured on this quagmire, which 
was appropriately christened the "Slough of 
Despond." 

Having transported ever3rthing to dry land and 
got the animals through the mud, we once more 
packed them and resumed our journey down the 
left bank of Grand River until we came to the 
Uncompagre, a short distance above its mouth. 

The largest animals were here selected to carry 
the packs across, their feet barely touching the 



94 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

bottom, whilst the strength of the current drove 
the water over their backs. Some of the men, 
mounted on horses, led the pack mules, and pre- 
vented their being carried down the stream where 
the water was deeper. One mule, with a valuable 
pack, having gone in of her own accord, was carried 
away, lost her foothold and sank, the weight of the 
pack being too great to allow her to swim ; she was 
swept down the stream with great rapidity, rolling 
over helplessly until entirely lost to our sight by 
a bend of the river. Some of the party swam 
across, and one, benumbed by the coldness of the 
w^ater, and exhausted by struggling against the 
stream, would have been drowned had he not 
been providentially seized just as his strength had 
entirely failed him. 

We encamped a few miles below the Uncompagre 
on the left bank of Grand River, upon a bluff from 
which we had a fine view of its course, and of the 
Pareamoot Mountains opposite. Our tormentors, 
the mosquitoes, did not fail to welcome us with 
a loud buzz, whilst the drone of the gadfly, which 
might with truth be termed the furia-infernalis of 
the plains, gave notice that he was about, thirsting 
for our blood. Wherever he inserted his proboscis, 
the sensation was like that of a redhot darning 
needle thrust into the flesh, and was followed by a 
stream of blood. The mules and horses suffered 
terribly by these flies. 

Our provisions, by losses in the river and damage 
by water, were fast diminishing, and it was deemed 



Across the Plains in '53 95 

prudent at this time to put ourselves on a limited 
allowance, for it was uncertain how long we might 
be detained in crossing this river, the Avonkaria, 
and Upper Colorado. 

The pack lost with the mule drowned in the 
Uncompagre contained many articles of importance 
to us, besides all our pinole (parched cornmeal), 
and some of the men lost all their clothing. 

It was late when we got to camp, and after a 
day of toil, exposure, and annoyance, nothing more 
could be done than to select a tree out of which 
to make a canoe, and the place to launch it, for all 
idea of crossing on a raft was abandoned. A few 
miles below the encampment the river was shut in 
by a canyon, towards which it drove with great 
swiftness; a raft carried into it would have been 
torn to pieces in a moment, without a chance for 
the men on it to save their lives. Day's travel, 
5 miles; total, 956 miles. 

June 25. At early dawn most of the party com- 
menced working on the canoe ; their only tools were 
two dull axes and two hatchets. A large cotton- 
wood tree was felled for this purpose, and it was 
hoped to have the canoe finished the next day. 
The wood, being green and full of sap, was hard to 
cut, and so heavy that chips of it sank when 
thrown into the water. 

The river still maintained the same level, and the 
bottom land was overflowed and marshy. The 
high lands on which we were encamped were 
composed of a loose, rotten soil, producing no 



96 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

vegetation except stunted sage-bushes. The only 
game we had seen for two days was an occasional 
sage-rabbit, so called from its flesh having a strong 
flavor of the wild sage (artemisia), on which it 
feeds. The sun was very hot and mosquitoes 
tormenting; we removed oiu* camp to the bluffs 
in the hope of avoiding them, but with little success. 

At this point, the general course of the river 
was parallel with the Pareamoot Mountains, from 
northeast to southwest. The latter appeared to 
rise in terraces, upon which much timber could 
be seen. 

The work on the canoe was continued steadily 
all day, though some of the party entertained 
grave doubts about crossing in it ; besides, the two 
rivers beyond Grand River were said to be larger 
and their ciurent swifter than this. Archilete 
stated that he had never seen the river so high, 
and that it was owing to the unusual quantity 
of snow which had fallen in the mountains during 
last winter. The wind rose at ten o'clock and 
blew with violence until sunset, which relieved us 
in a measure from the torment of mosquitoes, but 
they returned in fresh swarms as soon as it lulled. 

Jime 26. The canoe was completed at noon, 
and a fire was kindled in and aroimd to dry it. 
At 4 P.M. the first load went over with the Dela- 
ware and Archilete. Everything had to be carried 
to the water's edge through a thick jungle, knee- 
deep in mud, and under a broiling sun. 

They reached the opposite side safely, although 



Across the Plains in '53 97 

the current carried them some distance down the 
stream. The canoe was found to be very heavy 
and easy to upset. Archilete, Juan Lente, and 
myself went with the second load, reached the other 
side, and, after unloading, dragged the canoe some 
distance up stream to enable Archilete, who was 
to take it back, to make a landing at the point 
where the packs were deposited. Two more of the 
men crossed with the next load, and Archilete 
returned in the canoe to the left bank for the night. 

We were now four persons on the right bank of 
the stream with the prospect of getting the rest of 
the party and packs across at an early hour the 
next day. We retired to some dry land about half 
a mile from the river, and carried to it the few 
things that had been brought over. Just before 
dark, Dick, the Delaware, made his appearance 
in camp, dripping wet, and reported that he had 
just swam across with some of the mules; that 
after getting all into the water most of them had 
turned back, while three mules and one horse, 
having reached the right bank, had sunk into the 
mud, from which he had been unable to relieve 
them. We immediately went down to the water's 
edge with ropes, and with great difficulty got the 
horse out of his bed of mud, but found it impossible 
to extricate the mules. We were compelled to 
leave the poor animals in their forlorn situation 
until the morning, when we hoped to get them on 
dry land. 

June 2'-]. Rose at dawn, and our first business 



98 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

was to get the mules out of their dangerous pre- 
dicament, by cutting bushes and spreading them 
around the mired animals, thus rendering the 
ground sufficiently firm to support their weight. 

At an early hour, a signal was made to us from 
the other side that the canoe was about starting 
to cross. We therefore went down to the river- 
side to receive its load. In a few minutes she made 
her appearance, driving rapidly down the stream. 
She was heavily loaded, barely foiu* inches of her 
gunwale being above the water's edge. Felipe 
Archilete, a strong and active fellow, was paddling, 
whilst George Simms was crouched in the bow of 
the boat. They were unable to reach the point 
where previous landings had been effected, and 
were soon shut from our sight by trees and tangled 
bushes, growing close to the water. In a few 
seconds we heard the most alarming cries for help, 
and upon rushing to the spot from which these 
cries proceeded, found Archilete and George just 
emerging from the water, nearly exhausted with 
their struggles. 

It appears that upon approaching the bank and 
grasping some small limbs of trees overhanging 
the water, the latter broke, whereupon one of the 
men, becoming alarmed, attempted to jump from 
the boat to the shore, causing it immediately to 
upset. They were both thrown into the stream, 
which here ran with a strong current, and it was 
with difficulty that they reached the shore. I 
immediately called to one of the men, who was 



Across the Plains in '53 99 

standing near the horse, to gallop down the river's 
edge, and by swimming him into the middle of the 
stream to endeavor to reach the canoe should it 
make its appearance. But it was never seen again, 
nor did we recover any of the articles with which 
it was loaded. We lost by this accident seven 
rifles, nearly all our ammunition, pistols, saddles, 
commeal, coffee, sugar, blankets, etc. 

With broken axes and dull hatchets it would have 
been difficult if not impossible to have constructed 
another canoe; and, besides, the men were too 
much discouraged by this loss to undertake 
the labor with the spirit necessary to carry it 
through. 

Our party was equally divided; we were seven 
on each side. Some of the gentlemen on the left 
bank were now anxious to return to New Mexico 
to proceed to California by some other route; but 
Lieut. Beale would not listen for a moment to such 
a proposition. He hailed me at eight o'clock, and 
told me that as soon as he could construct a raft, 
and get the few remaining things and the animals 
over, we would push on for the Mormon settle- 
ments near the Vegas de Santa Clara. Expedition 
was necessary, for we had provisions for only four 
or five days. 

The Delaware swam back to Mr. Beale's side 
to assist him to construct a raft or canoe. He was 
a splendid swimmer, and went through the water 
like an otter. They immediately commenced the 
construction of another canoe, but both axes being 



100 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 



t) 



broken, they soon had to relinquish the task as 
hopeless. 

An inventory was made of the provisions, and 
it was found that we had twenty-five pounds of 
biscuit, mostly in dust, twenty-five pounds of dried 
venison, and ten pounds of bacon. Although this 
was but slender provision for fourteen hungry 
men, we had no fear of starvation, or even of 
suffering, as long as we had the mules. I also 
discovered in an old bag a small supply of powder 
and lead, and some chocolate and tobacco. A 
canister of meat -biscuit, upon which we had 
depended in case of an emergency of this sort, had 
unfortunately gone down with the canoe. 

At an early hour in the morning, we saw flying 
from a tree on the left bank the preconcerted signal 
to "come down for a talk." To reach the river, 
we had to wade for half a mile through a deep 
marsh, into which we sank to our knees, and the 
air was thick with mosquitoes. 

Lieut. Beale informed me that it had been 
decided to return to Taos for supplies, and inquired 
whether we could get back to the left bank. As 
two of the men on my side stated that they could 
not swim, it was decided to make a raft, and, if 
possible, to save the articles we had with us. 
Before this was determined upon, however, Lieut. 
Beale ordered Archilete to swim over to his side, 
which the latter did at once, taking his timber leg 
under his arm; and in the afternoon they made 
another ineffectual attempt to get the animals 



Across the Plains in '53 loi 

across. There was but one point where it was 
possible to drive them into the river, and here they 
crowded in on each other until those imdemeath 
were near drowning. Lieut. Beale and one of the 
men, who were riding, went into the river to lead 
the band across. The mules fell on them from 
the bank, which was at this place about three feet 
high, and for a moment they were in imminent 
danger of being crushed. An old horse alone 
struck boldly over, but none of the other animals 
followed his example. They all got out on the 
same side, and coiild not be again driven into the 
water. 

Lieut. Beale now desired me to make arrange- 
ments for returning to his side of the river, and 
while preparing the animals to move down to our 
camping-ground, I thought I heard a faint shout, 
and at the same time perceiving two dark objects 
moving in the water, some distance up the stream, 
I suspected that they were men from the opposite 
shore endeavoring to reach land on our side. 
The current was carrying them swiftly on towards 
a high bank overhanging the stream, where, with- 
out help, to have effected a landing would have 
been impossible. 

Hastily seizing a rope, and calling to the men to 
follow, I ran to the top of the cHff. In fact, they 
were our two best swimmers, Dick and Felipe, 
who were scarcely able to keep their hold until 
ropes could be let down to them. We drew them 
up half perished, and it required a good fire and 



102 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

something stimulating to restore circulation to 
their limbs, benumbed by the icy coldness of the 
water. Although we had no sugar, some coffee, 
that the Delaware had brought, tied in a hand- 
kerchief on his head, cheered the men, and we 
passed a good night, happy in any rest after such a 
day of toil. 

June 29. At an early hour in the morning, I 
commenced throwing into the river ever3rthing that 
we could possibly dispense with, such as clothing, 
etc. I allowed each man to select sufficient clothes 
from the general stock to make up one suit, and 
it was singular how soon their wants increased. 
Some of the Mexicans, who heretofore had been 
satisfied with one shirt and a pair of pants, now 
arrayed themselves in as many breeches, drawers, 
shirts, and stockings as they could force themselves 
into. I cached, under a thick bush, a few 
Indian goods that we had brought with us as 
presents. 

The three mules and two horses were passed 
over to the left shore without much difficulty by 
pushing them into the water from a bank, whence 
the eddy immediately carried them into the middle 
of the stream. They got out safely on the other 
side, and we at once commenced constructing the 
raft. 

It was completed at i p.m. and, although it was 
twelve feet in length by eight in breadth, the 
weight of seven men, with the saddles, arms, and 



Across the Plains in '53 103 

provisions we had saved, caused it to sink eighteen 
inches under water. It drifted rapidly down the 
stream, the men whooping and yelling until one 
struck up the old song of "O Susannah!" when the 
rest sang the chorus. In this style, we fell upwards 
of two miles down the river, propelling ourselves 
with rough paddles. Mr. Beale and others of the 
party stood on a hill on the opposite side cheering 
and waving their hats. Having approached within 
ten yards of the left bank, our tritons, Dick and 
Archilete, sprang into the water, with ropes in their 
teeth, and reaching the shore soon dragged the 
raft to the bank, upon which the remainder of the 
crew landed. 

At fotir P.M. on this eventful afternoon some of 
the party, Mr. Heap in command, started on the 
back trail; those whose saddles went down in the 
canoe were mounted on blankets instead. Mr. 
Heap was instructed to go to the settlements and 
return as speedily as possible but so provided as to 
prevent a second failure in attempting to cross the 
river. 

Wagner, Young, Dick Brown, the Delaware, and 
Felipe Archilete, Jr., remained with Lieut. Beale 
who encamped on the Namaquasitch a few miles 
back from the greater stream. Archilete, Sr., the 
nimble cripple, went with Mr. Heap as guide. He 
was also accompanied by those volunteer members 
of the expedition who after their narrow escape 
from drowning preferred taking the longer route 



104 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

to California via Fort Loraine and the Great Salt 
Lake. Mr. Heap's Journal continues: 

July 2. I passed a miserable night; it was cold 
and frosty, with a piercing north wind. My 
saddle-blanket was the only covering I had, and it 
was worn so thin and threadbare that it imparted 
scarcely any warmth. We saddled up and started 
at siuirise, directing our course nearly due east. 
The trail led over a mountain covered with thick 
pine forests, interspersed with rich meadows, and 
watered by numerous clear rills, until we reached 
a portion of the range where a hurricane or whiri- 
wind had, some years ago, uprooted and strewed in 
every direction a forest of tall pine trees. Through 
this tangled mass we forced our way with difficulty, 
but finally got through and commenced a gradual 
descent on the eastern side of the range. 

Peg-leg and myself were riding at a distance in 
advance of the rest of the party, when, upon cross- 
ing the summit of a hill, we suddenly found our- 
selves in the midst of a large flock of tame goats, 
behind which was a band of fifty mounted Utahs 
to whom they belonged. The Indians immediately 
gathered around us and overwhelmed us with 
questions; but were civil, and seemed light-hearted 
and merry. Most of the men had good rifles, 
and their horses were all in fine condition. My 
first thought upon meeting these Indians was the 
possibility of replenishing our exhausted larder with 
dried meat, and Peg-leg no sooner informed them 



Across the Plains in '53 105 

that we had been on short commons for several 
days than they dismounted, unpacked their ani- 
mals, and from their store presented me with a 
plentiful supply of dried buffalo, deer, and ante- 
lope flesh. 

Men, women, and children crowded around 
my mule, each handing me a parcel of meat; 
and, although it was apparent that they expected 
nothing in rettirn, I gave them as good a supply of 
tobacco, powder, lead, and percussion caps as I 
could spare ; but nothing delighted them so much as 
a box of lucifer matches; for, having shown them 
that by a simple friction they might produce a 
blaze, their joy was great, and each member of the 
band was eager to perform the feat of kindling a 
fire. 

A garrulous old Indian, who wore, by way of 
distinction, a "Genin" hat, sorely battered and 
bruised, and which had become the property of 
this venerable Utah by one of those reverses of 
fortune to which hats are so liable, addressed us a 
harangue accompanied by many gestures. Peg-leg 
translated his meaning to me, which was to the 
effect that they had been imsuccessful in the 
buffalo hunt, on which they depended in a great 
measure for their subsistence; that they had been 
many months in the buffalo country, but the 
treacherous Cheyennes and Arapahoes had driven 
them off, and had killed some of their young men. 
He added, that of dried antelope and deer meat 
they had a plenty, and that we were welcome to as 



io6 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

much as we needed. This unexpected generosity 
made me regret that it was out of my power to 
make them a suitable return, and I explained to 
them that our losses in Grand River had deprived 
us of the means of making them presents. He 
replied that what I had already given was quite 
sufficient. 

Our party had by this time overtaken us, but 
fearing that the "amicable relations so happily 
existing" might be disturbed, I desired them not 
to stop, retaining only a pack animal to load with 
the meat which I had obtained. 

With these Indians were many squaws and 
children. The former rode astride of the packs, 
and the boys, some of whom were not more than 
five years of age, were mounted on spirited horses, 
which they managed with much dexterity and 
grace, and were armed with small bows and arrows, 
two of which they held with the bow in their left 
hand ready for service. The chiefs invited us to 
encamp with them, that they might treat us with 
goat's milk and have a "talk"; but I considered it 
most prudent to separate from them before any 
cause of disagreement should arise to mar the good 
understanding that existed between us; besides, 
it was too early in the day for us to stop. I told 
them that, in the direction in which they were 
going, they would meet some of our friends whom 
we had left for a short time, and that on our return 
we would bring them tobacco and other presents. 
They promised to treat our friends well, and, after 



Across the Plains in '53 107 

a general shaking of hands, we parted mutually- 
pleased with each other. 

We encamped at noon on a fork of Sahwatch 
Creek, running to the eastward through a broad 
grassy valley, and after a rest of two hours resumed 
our journey. We had not proceeded far when we 
noticed at a short distance to our right a singular- 
looking object, which appeared to be rolling rather 
than walking over the grotmd. On approaching 
it, it proved to be a decrepit Utah squaw, bending 
under the weight of two packs of buffalo robes, one 
of which she bore on her shoulders, whilst the other 
was suspended in front. She was much terrified 
when we galloped towards her, and although she 
made a feeble attempt to fly, her shaking limbs bent 
under her, and she sank to the ground paralyzed 
with fear. We, however, reassured her, and got her 
to explain to us the cause of her being in this lonely 
region by herself. Archilete being interpreter, 
she told us that, three moons previous, a party of 
her people going to hunt buffaloes had left her and 
another old woman in the mountains, as neither 
had horses, and they were unable to keep up with 
the band on foot. She said that they had sub- 
sisted on meat left them by their tribe, and ended 
by telling us that she had just buried her com- 
panion, who had died the previous night, and that 
she was now on her way to the summer rendezvous 
of her people, carrying her own and her com- 
panion's pack. We informed her that she would 
probably overtake a band of Utahs that night or 



io8 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the next day, and placed her on their trail. She 
seemed glad to receive this news, and still more so 
when we turned our mules' heads to leave her, 
though we had shown her all possible kindness — 
so hard is it in them to believe in the sincerity of 
white people. 

The trail led over low hills and down a succession 
of beautiful slopes, running mostly in a southerly 
direction, imtil we entered a narrow winding 
valley two and a half miles in length by one 
hundred to two hundred yards in breadth. It 
was shut in on each side by perpendicular walls 
of rock rising from fifty to seventy-five feet 
above the level of the valley, whose surface was 
fiat and carpeted with tender grass. A stream 
of clear water meandered through its centre, 
and the grade was so slight that the stream, 
overflowing its banks in many places, moistened 
the whole surface. 

As we descended this beautiful and singular 
valley, we occasionally passed others of a similar 
character opening into it. It ends in Sahwatch 
Valley, which we entered about an hour before 
sunset. 

We had here the choice of two routes: the first 
was down Sahwatch Valley to its outlet near the 
head of the valley of San Luis, which would have 
taken us over the same ground that we had tra- 
versed in coming in from Fort Massachusetts; the 
second crossed Sahwatch Valley here, passed over 
a shorter and as good a route, and entered San Luis 



Across the Plains in '53 109 

Valley near where the Garita leaves the mountains. 
We selected the last route. 

Coochatope Pass enters Sahwatch Valley a mile 
below Camero Pass. Crossing Sahwatch Valley, 
here half a mile broad, we travelled up a narrow 
valley for a short distance into the hills and 
encamped at dark. Day's travel, 47 miles; dis- 
tance from Grand River, 138 miles. 



July 3. During the early part of the night the 
mosquitoes swarmed aroimd us, but it soon became 
cold, which drove them away. We were delayed 
some time after sunrise in consequence of most 
of the mules having gone astray; they were not 
recovered until near seven o'clock, when we re- 
sumed our j ourney . Our course was generally east, 
down a succession of valleys, whose stirface was 
level and moist, with hills rising abruptly on either 
side. We saw a great abundance of game, but 
killed nothing but a grouse. These mountains 
teem with antelope, deer, and mountain sheep. 

July 6. To secure an early start, and to prevent 
our animals from trespassing upon the cultivated 
fields, none of which are inclosed, a man was 
engaged to watch them whilst at pastture during 
the night; but my horse having been allowed to 
escape, it was not until after sunrise that I could 
procure another. A ride of twenty-two miles 
brought us to the Colorado (Red River) , our road 
taking us across three small streams (Las Ladillas) 



no Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

on the borders of which were extensive sheep 
ranchos. The Colorado is formed by the junction 
of two abundant streams, which issue from deep 
canyons in lofty and abruptly rising mountains. 
The valley of the Colorado is about three miles in 
length by one in breadth, and the Colorado River, 
having passed it, flows through a deep channel in 
the plain, and unites its waters to those of the Del 
Norte. The valley presents a beautiful view, and 
being abundantly irrigated by means of acequias 
(canals) every acre of it is imder cultivation. The 
village of the Colorado consists of one himdred 
adobe houses built to form a quadrangle, with 
their doors and windows presenting upon the 
square inside. 

Mr. Charles Otterby, a Missourian, long domi- 
ciled in New Mexico, invited me to his house and 
procured me a fresh horse, as the one I had ridden 
from the Costilla (a distance of twenty-two miles) 
in two hours and a half had broken down. I left 
Colorado at noon and, travelling twelve miles 
across a mountain, over a rough and stony road, 
I reached the Rio Hondo (Deep Creek) which is so 
called from its channel being sunk in many places 
far below the level of the plain ; for the stream itself 
is neither deep nor broad. I here engaged a young 
American, Thomas Otterby, to go with us to Cali- 
fornia, he having a reputation almost equal to Kit 
Carson's for bravery, dexterity with his rifle, and 
skill in mountain life. I also purchased a mule to 
replace my unshod and sore-footed horse, and rode 



Across the Plains in '53 11 1 

to Taos, nine miles beyond, across a level plain, 
arriving there at 3 p.m. 

Mr. St. Vrain, for whom I had a letter, being 
absent from Taos, I was hospitably received by 
his lady. I immediately called on Mr. Leroux, 
who had a few days previously returned from Fort 
Atkinson in improved health. Making known to 
him the accident which had befallen us at Grand 
River, and stating our wants, I obtained, with his 
assistance, the supplies we needed. Raw hides 
were procured and sewed together, to be used as 
boats for crossing rivers. Com was parched to 
make pinole (parched and pounded cornmeal, 
sweetened), coffee roasted, etc. 

San Fernando de Taos is situated in the centre of 
a broad plain, watered by two or three small brooks 
whose waters are entirely absorbed in the irriga- 
tion of the lands around the town. It presents, 
both within and without, a poor appearance; its 
low, earth-colored houses, scattered irregularly 
about, look dingy and squalid, though within many 
of them are comfortable; and they are all well 
adapted to the climate. The town is surrounded 
with uninclosed fields, very fertile when irrigated, 
and the Taos wheat, originally obtained from the 
wild wheat growing spontaneously on the Santa 
Clara and the Rio de la Virgen, has obtained a wide 
reputation. 



CHAPTER VII 
Beale's Separate Journal 

Hunting Prowess of the Delaware — Indians Appear in Camp 
— Banquet of Venison and Boiled Com — The Beautiful 
Valley of the Savoya — The Indians Race their Horses 
— A Taste of Rough Riding — The Return of Mr. Heap. 

July I. Remained in camp to await the return 
of Heap, with provisions, etc. Remained with me 
the Delaware, Dick Brown, Felipe Archilete, Jr., 
Harry Young, and Wagner. Nothing to eat in 
camp ; sent the Delaware out to hunt, and we com- 
menced a house. About nine, Dick returned with 
a buck, finished the house; sick with dysentery. 
We find the venison good, it being the first meat or 
food of any kind, except commeal and water, we 
have had for a week. 

July 2. Weather pleasant; mosquitoes abund- 
ant, but not troublesome; washed the two dirty 
shirts which composed my wardrobe. No signs of 
Indians, and begin to hope we shall not be troubled 
with them. Nevertheless keep the fright medicine 
at hand, and the guns ready. Grass abundant 
and good, animals thriving; the Delaware kiUed 
an elk, dried some meat ; still sick. 



Beale's Separate Journal 113 

July 3. Employed the day in drying the meat 
killed yesterday. Weather very hot; but for the 
sunshine one would suppose it to be snowing, the 
air being filled with light fleeces like snow-flakes 
from the cotton wood. The creek is falling, but 
slowly. Time drags very heavily ; three days gone, 
however, and nine remain; twelve days being the 
time allotted to go and return from Taos. 

Jtdy 4. Celebrated the day by eating our last 
two cups of pinole; felt highly excited by it. 
Henceforth we go it on tobacco and dried meat. 
The Delaware killed a doe, tolerably fat ; dried the 
meat; still sick; bathed in creek; found the water 
excessively cold, but felt much refreshed and better 
after the bath, besides having killed an hour by it — 
a very important item. 

July 5. To-day we killed only a rabbit. The 
day has been somewhat cool, though the evening 
is dry and sultry, and the mosquitoes much more 
troublesome than usual. Took a bath, which 
seems to give relief from my malady, which, thank 
God, is no worse. We hope that our men have 
reached Taos this evening. 

July 6. To-day has been cloudy, with rain in 
the mountains all around us, though but a few 
scattering drops have reached the valley. We 
all complain this evening of great weakness 
and entire lack of energy, with dizziness in the 
head, and do not know from what cause it 
proceeds. The bath in the creek has not had 
its usual invigorating effect; mosquitoes very 



114 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

troublesome; made a little soup in a tin box and 
found it tolerable. 

July 7. For the last two days we have killed 
nothing. This evening we had quite a shower of 
rain ; started to take a long walk, but broke down 
very soon, being too weak to go far. I find my 
sickness worse to-day, but it is the least of my 
anxieties. Would to God I had none other ! Took 
the usual evening bath in the creek, which has 
slightly fallen during the day, and the water not 
quite so cold, which encourages me to hope that 
the supply of snow in the mountains is nearly 
exhausted. 

July 8. This morning our anxieties from Indians 
have commenced. At ten o'clock three of them 
rode into camp, and shortly afterwards some dozen 
more. 

July 9. Yesterday, after the Indians arrived, 
I gave them what little tobacco we could spare and 
some of our small stock of dried elk meat. After 
eating and smoking for a while they insisted on my 
accompanying them to their camp, which was 
some ten miles off. I explained to them as well as 
I could who I was. 

Knowing that it is best always to act boldly 
with Indians, as if you felt no fear whatever, I 
armed myself and started with them. Our road 
for a mile or two led over a barren plain, thickly 
covered with greasewood, but we soon struck the 
base of the mountain, where the firm rich mountain 
grass swept our saddle-girths as we cantered over 



Beale's Separate Journal 115 

it. We crossed a considerable mountain covered 
with timber and grass, and near the summit of 
which was quite a cluster of small, but very clear 
and apparently deep lakes. They were not more 
than an acre or two in size, and some not even that, 
but surrounded by luxuriant grass, and perched 
away up on the mountain, with fine timber quite 
near them. It was the most beautiful scenery in 
the world; it formed quite a hunter's paradise, for 
deer and elk bounded off from us as we approached 
and then stood within rifle-shot, looking back in 
astonishment. 

A few hours' ride brought us to the Indian camp ; 
and I wish I could here describe the beauty of 
the charming valley in which they lived. It was 
small, probably not more than five miles wide by 
fifteen long, but surrounded on all sides by the 
boldest mountains, covered to their summits with 
alternate patches of timber and grass, giving it the 
appearance of having been regularly laid off in 
small farms. Through the centre a fine bold 
stream, probably three feet deep by forty wide, 
watered the meadow land, and gave the last touch 
which the valley required to make it the most beau- 
tiful I had ever seen. Hundreds of horses and 
goats were feeding on the meadows and hillsides, 
and the Indian lodges, with the women and children 
standing in front of them to look at the approaching 
stranger, strongly reminded me of the old patri- 
archal times, when flocks and herds made the 
wealth and happiness of the people, and a tent was 



ii6 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

as good as a palace. I was conducted to the lodge 
of the chief, an old and infirm man, who welcomed 
me kindly, and told me his young men had told 
him I had given of my small store to them, and to 
"sit in peace." 

I brought out my pipe, filled it, and we smoked 
together. In about fifteen minutes a squaw 
brought in two large wooden platters, containing 
some very fat deer meat and some boiled corn, to 
which I did ample justice. After this followed a 
dish which one must have been two weeks without 
bread to have appreciated as I did. Never at the 
tables of the wealthiest in Washington did I find 
a dish which appeared to me so perfectly without 
a parallel. It was some cornmeal boiled in goat's 
milk, with a little elk fat. I think I certainly ate 
near half a peck of this delicious atole, and then 
stopped, not because I had enough, but because I 
had scraped the dish dry with my fingers, and licked 
them as long as the smallest particle remained, 
which is "manners" among Indians, and also 
among Arabs. Eat all they give you, or get some- 
body to do it for you, is to honor the hospitality 
you receive. To leave any is a slight. I needed 
not the rule to make me eat all. 

After this we smoked again, and when about to 
start I found a large bag of dried meat and a peck 
of com put up for me to take to my people. 

Bidding a friendly good-bye to my hosts, and 
dividing among them about a pound of tobacco 
and two handkerchiefs, and giving the old chief 



Beale's Separate Journal 117 

the battered remains of a small leaden picayune 
looking-glass, I mounted my mule to return. The 
sun was just setting when I started, and before 
reaching the simimit of the mountain it was quite 
dark. As there was no road, and the creek very 
dark in the bottoms, I had a most toilsome time of 
it. At one creek, which I reached after very great 
difficulty in getting through the thick and almost 
impenetrable undergrowth, it was so dark that I 
could see nothing; but, trusting to luck, I jumped 
my mule off the bank and brought up in water 
nearly covering my saddle. Getting in was bad 
enough, but coming out was worse; for, finding the 
banks high on the other side, I was obliged to follow 
down the stream for half a mile or more, not know- 
ing when I should be swimming, until I succeeded 
with great difficulty in getting out through the 
tangled brushwood on the opposite side. I arrived 
at camp late at night, and found my men very 
anxiously awaiting my return, having almost con- 
cluded to give me up, and to think I had lost my 
"hair." A little rain. 

July 1 1 . To-day I raised camp and went over 
to the valley of the Savoya, near my Indian neigh- 
bors. The more I see of this valley the more I am 
delighted with it. I cannot say how it may be in 
winter, but at this time it is certainly the most 
beautiful valley, and the richest in grass, wood, soil, 
and water, I have ever seen. The Delaware 
brought into camp last evening a small deer, 
alive, which he had caught in the mountains. 



ii8 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

It was a beautiful creature, but it escaped in the 

night. 

July 12. Went out this morning with the 
Indians to hunt. They lent me a fine horse; but 
God forbid that I should ever himt with such 
Indians again ! I thought I had seen something of 
rough riding before; but all my experience faded 
before that of the feats of to-day. Some places 
which we ascended and descended it seemed to me 
that even a wildcat could hardly have passed over ; 
and yet their active and thoroughly well-trained 
horses took them as part of the sport, and never 
made a misstep or blunder during the entire day. 
We killed three antelopes and a young deer. 

Yesterday an Indian, while sitting at our camp, 
broke the mainspring of his rifle lock. His distress 
was beyond an3rthing within the power of descrip- 
tion. To him it was everything. The "com, 
wine, and oil" of his family depended on it, and he 
sat for an hour looking upon the wreck of his for- 
tune in perfect despair. He appeared so much 
cast down by it that at last I went into our lodge 
and brought my rifle, which I gave him to replace 
the broken one. At first he could not realize it, 
but as the truth gradually broke upon him, his joy 
became so great that he could scarce control him- 
self; and when he returned that night he was the 
happiest man I have seen for many a day. 

These Indians are all well armed and moimted, 
and the very best shots and hunters. Our revol- 
vers seem, however, to be a never failing source of 



Beale's Separate Journal 119 

astonishment to them, and they are never tired of 
examining them. Yesterday, I allowed them to fire 
two of ours at a mark, at thirty paces. They shot 
admirably well, putting all the shots within a space 
of the small mark (size of a half dollar) and hitting 
it several times. A rainy day. 

July 13. To-day has been showery, and the 
evening still cloudy, and promising more rain 
during the night. Our eyes are now turned con- 
stantly to the opposite side of the valley, down 
which the road winds by which we expect our 
companions from Taos. 

These days have been the most weary and 
anxious of my whole life. Sometimes I am almost 
crazy with thinking constantly on one subject and 
the probably disastrous result which this delay 
may have on my business in California. 

God knows I have done all for the best, and with 
the best intentions. A great many Indians came 
into the valley this evening. Ten lodges in all, 
which, with the fifteen already here, and more on 
the road, make up a pretty large band. Dick 
killed an antelope. Last two nights have slept in 
wet blankets, and expect the same to-night. Last 
night it rained all night. The Spanish boy has 
been quite ill for two days past. 

July 14. This morning I explored the mountain 
lying to the north of our camp, forming a pictur- 
esque portion of our front view. After ascending 
the mountain and reaching the summit, I found it 
a vast plateau of rolling prairie land, covered with 



120 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the most beautiful grass, and heavily timbered. 
At some places the growth of timber would be so 
dense as to render riding through it impossible 
without great difficulty; while at others it would 
break into beautiful open glades, leaving spaces of 
a hundred acres or more of open prairie, with 
groups of trees, looking precisely as if some wealthy 
planter had amused himself by planting them 
expressly to beautify his grounds. 

Springs were abundant, and small streams in- 
tersected the whole plateau. In fact, it was an 
immense natural park, already stocked with deer 
and elk, and only requiring a fence to make it an 
estate for a king. Directly opposite, to the south, 
is another mountain, in every respect similar, and 
our valley, more beautiful to me than either, lies 
between them. In the evening took a long ride on 
the trail to meet otir long-expected companions. 
I did not meet them, and returned disappointed, 
worried, and more anxious than ever. 

July 15. This has been a great day for our 
Indian neighbors. Two different bands of the 
same tribe have met, and a great contest is going 
on to prove which has the best horses. They have 
been at it since the morning, and many a buckskin 
has changed hands. The horses are all handsome, 
and run remarkably well. We have had more than 
fifty races; a surfeit of them, if such a thing as a 
surfeit of horse-racing is possible. 

July 16. Here at last. This morning I saddled 
my mule to go and hunt up our expected com- 



Beale's Separate Journal 121 

panions. I had not gone far before I met about 
fifty Indians, from whom I could learn nothing of 
them, and was beginning to despair, when I met a 
loose mule, and as I knew it was not one of the 
Indians' I concluded it must belong to some of our 
companions. Going on a mile or two farther, I 
met Felipe, who told me that Heap and the others 
were just behind. I immediately returned to 
camp to get dinner ready for them, so that we 
might go on this evening to the Uncompagre. 
Here terminates the most unpleasant sixteen days 
of my life; but for this beautiful country, to look 
at and explore, I think I should have gone crazy. 
The time seemed endless to me, but my zealous 
comrades had not unnecessarily lengthened it, for 
they had averaged 45 miles a day during the double 
journey (going and coming) and that through the 
whole mass of mountains which lie between the 
Upper Del Norte and the Grand River Fork of 
the great Colorado (Red River) of the Gulf of 
California. 



CHAPTER VIII 
On the Verge of Hostilities 

Shaking Hands with Utahs — Picturesque Encampment on 
the Big Uncompagre — Lieutenant Beale and the 
"Capitanos" — A Stiff Demand for Presents — A Pair 
of Game-cocks — Crossing the Fallen River — Indians 
in Paint and Feathers — Beale's Ultimatum — The Dela- 
ware's Long Memory — Grand River Canyon — The 
Crossing — The Indians Attempt a Stampede — The 
Mormons near the Vegas of Santa Clara — Paragoona — 
Brigham Young — Why the Mormons Settled at 
Parawan — Little Salt Lake — Strict Vigilance over 
Strangers — Colonel Smith — The Practice of Polygamy 
— Views on the System of " Spiritual Wives. " 

SHORTLY after Mr. Heap returned to camp 
with the much needed supplies Lieut. Beale 
despatched Wagner and Gallengo to Grand 
River with the bull-hides, directing them to make 
a boat should they fail to find a ford. Mr. Heap's 
Journal continues : 

July 17. We were now again united, and freed 
from the anxiety for each other's safety which had 
been weighing on us since the day of our separation. 
We resumed oiu* journey at sunrise, with the hope 
of soon overcoming all difficulties. Although the 



On the Verge of Hostilities 123 

sun rose in a cloudless sky, yet before noon the 
rain commenced falling in heavy showers. Lieut. 
Beale and myself, having much to relate to each 
other, rode several miles ahead of the men. We 
descended to the plain at the foot of the Sah- 
watch Mountains by the same trail over which we 
had already twice travelled, and which was now 
familiar to us. 

On approaching the Uncompagre we travelled 
parallel with its course towards Grand River, 
keeping on the trail of the two men sent ahead the 
day before with the hides to construct the boat. 
At noon, we noticed two recumbent figures on a 
distant butte, with horses standing near them; 
when we had approached within a mile they sprang 
to their saddles and galloped towards us at full 
speed. They were Utah Indians, on a scout, and 
evinced no fear of us, but approaching, frankly 
offered us their hands. We conversed with them 
partly by signs and partly by means of the few 
Utah words which we had picked up, and their 
scanty knowledge of Spanish, which extended only 
to the names of a few objects and animals. They 
told us that large numbers of their tribe were 
encamped a few miles below, on the Uncompagre, 
and, bidding them farewell, we went on to meet our 
train. 

Soon after parting with them, we saw on the 
hillsides and river bottom a vast number of gayly- 
colored lodges, and numerous bands of Indians 
arriving from the northward. Upon approaching, 



124 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

we were received by a number of the oldest men, 
who invited us to ascend a low but steep hill 
where most of the chiefs were seated. From this 
point we had a view of an animated and interesting 
scene. On every side fresh bands of Indians were 
pouring in, and the women were kept busy in erect- 
ing their lodges in the bottom near the Uncom- 
pagre, as well as on the higher land nearer to us. 
Horses harnessed to lodge poles, on which were 
packed the various property of the Indians and in 
many cases their children, were arriving, and large 
bands of loose horses and mules were being driven 
to the riverside to drink or to pasture. Squaws were 
going to the stream for water, whilst others were 
returning with their osier jars filled, and poised on 
their heads. Some of the young men were gallop- 
ing around on their high-mettled horses, and others, 
stretched lazily on the grass, were patiently wait- 
ing until their better halves had completed the 
construction of their lodges, and announced that 
the evening meal was prepared. All the males, 
from the old man to the stripling of four years, 
were armed with bows and arrows, and most of 
the men had serviceable rifles. We almost fancied 
that we had before us a predatory tribe of Scythians 
or Ntmiidians, so similar are these Indians in their 
dress, accoutrements, and habits, to what we have 
learned of those people. 

An old chief, who, we were told, was one of their 
great men, addressed us a discourse, which very 
soon went beyond the limits of our knowledge of 



On the Verge of Hostilities 125 

the Utah tongue, but we Hstened to it with the 
appearance of not only understanding the sub- 
ject, but also of being highly interested. Our 
men, with Felipe Archilete, the guide and inter- 
preter, were many miles in the rear, and we waited 
until their arrival, for Lieut. Beale wished to take 
advantage of this opportunity to have a conver- 
sation with these chiefs, two of whom were the 
highest in the nation. 

When Felipe came up, Lieut. Beale and the 
"capitanos," as they styled themselves, engaged in 
a long ''talk." Lieut. Beale told them that many 
Americans would be soon passing through their 
country on their way to the Mormon settlements 
and California, with wagons and herds, and that, 
if they treated the whites well, either by aiding 
them when in difficulty, guiding them through the 
motmtains, and across the rivers, or by furnishing 
them with food when they needed it, they would 
always be amply rewarded. They appeared much 
gratified to hear this and by way, no doubt, of test- 
ing whether his practice coincided with his preach- 
ing, intimated that they would be well pleased to 
receive, then, some of the presents of which he 
spoke ; remarking, that as we had passed through 
their country, used their pasturage, lived among 
their people, and had even been fed by them, it 
was but proper that some small return should be 
made for so many favors. This was an argument 
which Lieut. Beale had not foreseen, but having 
no presents to give them, he explained how it was; 



126 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

that, having lost everything we possessed in Grand 
River, it was out of his power to gratify them. 
This explanation did not appear at all satisfactory^ 
nor did they seem altogether to credit him. They 
were very covetous of our rifles, but we could not, 
of course, part with them. The old chief became 
taciturn and sulky, and glanced towards us occa- 
sionally with a malignant expression. 

We took no notice of his ill-temper, but lit our 
pipes and passed them around. In the meanwhile, 
our men had, in accordance with Mr. Beale's 
directions, proceeded to Grand River, where they 
were to seek for Wagner and Gallengo, and encamp 
with them. Felipe, whose quick and restless eye 
was always on the watch, dropped us a hint, in a 
few words, that it was becoming unsafe to remain 
longer in the midst of these savages, for he had 
noticed symptoms of very unfriendly feelings. 

We were seated in a semicircle on the brow of a 
steep hill, and a large crowd had collected around 
us. Rising without exhibiting any haste, we 
adjusted our saddles, relit our pipes, and shaking 
hands with the chiefs who were nearest to us, 
mounted and rode slowly down the hill, followed 
by a large number of Utahs, who, upon our rising 
to leave them, had sprung to their saddles. The 
older men remained seated and our escort consisted 
almost entirely of young warriors. They galloped 
around us in every direction ; occasionally, a squad 
of four or five would charge upon us at full speed, 
reining up suddenly, barely avoiding riding over us 



On the Verge of Hostilities 127 

and our mules. They did this to try our mettle, 
but as we took little notice of them, and affected 
perfect unconcern, they finally desisted from their 
dangerous sport. At one time the conduct of 
a young chief, the son of El Capitan Grande, 
was near occasioning serious consequences. He 
charged upon Felipe with a savage yell, every 
feature apparently distorted with rage; his horse 
struck Felipe's mule, and very nearly threw them 
both to the ground. The Indian, then seizing 
Felipe's rifle, endeavored to wrench it from his 
hands, but the latter held firmly to his gun, telling 
us at the same time not to interfere. We and the 
Indians formed a circle around them, as they sat 
in their saddles, each holding on to the gun, whose 
muzzle was pointed full at the Indian's breast. 
He uttered many imprecations and urged his fol- 
lowers to lend him their assistance. They looked 
at us inquiringly, and we cocked our rifles; the 
hint was sufficient — they declined to interfere. 
For some minutes the Utah and Felipe remained 
motionless, glaring at each other like two game- 
cocks, each watching with flashing eyes for an 
opportunity to assail his rival. Seeing that to 
trifle longer would be folly, Felipe, who held the 
butt-end of the rifle, deliberately placed his thumb 
on the hammer and raising it slowly, gave warning 
to the young chief, by two ominous clicks, that 
his life was in danger. For a moment longer 
the Utah eyed Felipe, and then, with an indescrib- 
able grunt, pushed the rifle from him, and lashing 



128 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

his horse furiously, rode away from us at full speed. 
Felipe gave us a sly wink, and uttered the highly 
original ejaculation — " Carajo." 

July 1 8. We saddled up at early dawn, swam 
oiu* mules across the Uncompagre, and rejoined 
oiu- men. They informed us that Juan Cordova 
had deserted the day before, and returned to Lieut. 
Beale's encampment on the Savoya in company 
with the two Indians we had met in the morning, 
and who were going that way. 

We found camp filled with Indians who, how- 
ever, behaved in a friendly manner, and had even 
supplied the men with a bucketful of goat's milk. 
No time was lost in preparing to ford Grand River 
and some Indians went ahead to show us the way. 
On reaching the stream we found that it had fallen 
about six feet, and under the guidance of the 
Indians had no difficulty in getting over. The 
water reached nearly to the mules' backs, but 
the packs had been secured so high as to prevent 
their getting wet. 

The Indians followed us across in large nimibers, 
and at times tried our patience to the utmost. 
They nimibered about two hundred and fifty 
warriors, and were all mounted on fine horses, 
and well armed with bows and arrows, having laid 
aside their rifles, which Felipe considered a sign 
that their designs were unfriendly, as they never 
carry them when they intend to fight on horseback. 
Their appearance, as they whirled around us at 
full speed, clothed in bright colors, and occasionally 




m 

00 



0) 

> 

O 
o 

> 
< 



On the Verge of Hostilities 129 

charging upon us with a loud yell, made a striking 
contrast with that of our party, mounted as we 
were upon mules, in the half-naked condition in 
which we had crossed the river (for it was dan- 
gerous to stop for a moment to dress). They 
enjoyed many laughs at our expense, taunting us, 
and comparing us, from our bearded appearance, 
to goats, and calling us beggarly cowards and 
women. Most of these compHments were lost to 
us at the time, but Felipe afterwards explained 
them. 

The old chief, the same who had given us such 
a surly reception on the preceding day, and his 
son, who had made a trial of strength with Felipe 
for his rifle, soon joined us, and behaved with much 
insolence, demanding presents in an imperious 
manner, and even endeavored to wrench our guns 
from our hands, threatening to "wipe us out" if 
we refused to comply with their wishes. They 
frequently harangued the young men, and abused 
us violently for traversing their country, using 
their grass and timber without making them any 
acknowledgment for the obligation. The latter 
listened in silence, but most of them remained calm 
and unmoved, and evinced no disposition to molest 
us. The chiefs then changed their tactics and 
endeavored to provoke us to commence hostilities. 
Lieut. Beale calmly explained to them that, having 
lost everything in the river, he was unable to make 
them such presents as he would have desired, and 
added (addressing himself to the chiefs) that he 



130 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

clearly saw that they were vile-hearted men; for, 
after treating us as brothers and friends, they were 
now endeavoring to make bad blood between us 
and their people. He ended by telling them that 
we had a few articles which he would have dis- 
tributed among them, had they not behaved in so 
unfriendly a manner; but that now, the only terms 
upon which they could obtain them was by giving 
a horse in exchange. Mr. Beale's motive for not 
giving them presents was our inability to satisfy 
the whole party, for all we possessed was a piece 
of cloth, a calico shirt, and some brass wire, and 
these articles, valueless as they were, if given to a 
few, would have excited the jealousy and ill-will 
of the less fortunate, and thus made them our 
enemies. The Indians, however, declined giving 
a horse in exchange for what we offered, saying 
that it would not be a fair bargain. Mr. Beale 
then said: "If you want to trade, we will trade; if 
you want to fight, we will fight"; requesting those 
who were not inclined to hostilities to stand aside, 
as we had no wish to injure our friends. 

The chiefs, finding themselves in the minority 
as regarded fighting, finally consented to give us a 
mare for our goods; and after the trade was made 
we parted, much relieved at getting rid of such 
ugly customers. 

The Utahs had been in company with us for 
several hours and had often separated our party. 
During all this time our rifles were held ready for 
use, not knowing at what moment the conflict 



On the Verge of Hostilities 131 

might commence. Had we come to blows, there is 
no doubt that we should have been instantly over- 
whelmed. The Delaware had kept constantly- 
aloof from the party, never allowing an Indian to 
get behind him; and although he silently, but 
sullenly, resisted the attempts that were made to 
snatch his rifle from his grasp, he never for a 
moment removed his eyes from the old chief, but 
glared at him with a ferocity so peculiar that it was 
evident that feelings even stronger than any that 
could arise from his present proceedings prompted 
the Delaware's ire against the rascally Utah. Dick 
subsequently told us that, when he was a boy, he 
had fallen into the hands of this same old chief, 
who had been urgent to put him to death. Dick 
had nursed his revenge with an Indian's constancy, 
and, upon the first blow, intended to send a rifle- 
ball through his skull. 

Several times Felipe warned us to be on our 
guard, as the attack was about to commence, and 
Lieut. Beale directed all to dismount upon the 
first unequivocal act of hostility, to stand each 
man behind his mule, and to take deliberate aim 
before firing. 

Travelling down Grand River, at some distance 
from its right bank, we came to where it flowed 
through a canyon. The ground on either side of 
the river was much broken by ravines. The coun- 
try, about a mile from the river, was barren and 
level, producing nothing but wild sage and prickly 
pear. After a harassing day we encamped on a 



132 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

rapid, clear, and cool brook, with good pasturage 
on its banks, called in the Utah language, the 
Cerenoquinti ; it issues from the Pareamoot Moun- 
tains and flows into Grand River. Day's travel, 
25 miles; whole distance from Westport, computed 
from June 23, 976 miles. 

July 20. Commenced crossing at an early hour. 
The boat answered admirably; it was buoyant, 
easily managed, and safe. Before sunset most of 
the train had crossed, and the Delaware had suc- 
ceeded in swimming the mules over, by following 
in their wake, and heading off those that tried to 
turn back. It took us longer than we had antici- 
pated to get our effects across, as it was necessary 
at each trip to tow the boat some distance up the 
right bank, in order to make our encampment on 
the left, without drifting below it. The current 
was very rapid, and the work of towing the boat up 
through the bushes which overhung the stream 
very laborious. Some of the Mexicans and a few 
of their packs were carried in safety to the left 
bank. It rained heavily during the afternoon 
and we passed a wet night under blankets. The 
camp was crowded with Indians, who were anxious 
to trade, but were not troublesome. As some of 
them passed the night with us, we allowed our 
animals to run with theirs. 

Henry Young was at one time in a very pre- 
carious position, from which he was relieved with 
difficulty. One of the mules had stubbornly re- 
sisted every effort to get her over, and had finally 



On the Verge of Hostilities 133 

made a landing under a high precipice on the left 
shore, from which it was impossible to dislodge 
her without going into the water and swimming 
to the spot. This was attempted by Young, and 
as the current here swept down with tremendous 
velocity, he was on the point of drowning, when 
fortunately he seized a rock, upon which he landed. 
It was now dark, the rain falling fast, and to have 
passed the night in this situation was certain de- 
struction, for he was under a precipice, and in front 
of him roared the Avonkarea. No one knew that 
he had gone into the water, and we were not aware 
of his distress until he had attracted our attention 
by his shouts and a flash of lightning revealed him 
to us. The boat was got down to him after more 
than an hour's work, and he was finally brought 
into camp nearly frozen. 

July 21. The remainder of the packs and men 
crossed in the morning, and the day was constimed 
in sending the rest of the Mexicans and their lug- 
gage to the opposite side. They were also assisted 
in crossing over their animals. These men re- 
ported that they had been badly treated by the 
Mormons at the Vegas de Santa Clara, and that 
two of their number had been put in jail. They 
warned us to be on our guard, when we arrived 
in Utah Territory, as they (the Mormons) had 
threatened to shoot or imprison all Americans 
passing through their country. Notwithstanding 
their plausible story, the Mexicans only impressed 
us with the belief that, having misbehaved, they 



134 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

had received the chastisement they deserved, for 
it was well known to us that the Mormons strictly- 
prohibited the practice of the natives of New 
Mexico of bartering firearms and ammunition 
with the Indians for their children. 

The hides were removed from the frame of the 
boat and reserved for future use, and having got 
our animals together we resimied our march at 

7 P.M. 

July 24. The men passed a refreshing night, 
perfectly free from the mosquitoes, which had been 
a source of such serious annoyance since leaving 
the settlements in New Mexico. Started at 5 a.m. 
and, travelling thirty-five miles, encamped on 
Green River Fork of the Great Colorado at i p.m. 

The country we traversed was stony and broken 
by dry watercourses. On every side, and princi- 
pally to the north and northeast, extended ranges 
of rugged hills, bare of vegetation, and seamed with 
ravines. On their summits were rocks of fantastic 
shapes, resembling pyramids, obelisks, churches, 
and towers, and having all the appearance of a 
vast city in the distance. The only vegetation was 
a scanty growth of stunted wild sage and cacti, 
except at a point known as the Hole in the Rock, 
where there were willows and other plants denoting 
the vicinity of water, but we found none on our 
route. The sim was exceedingly hot, and we, as 
well as our mules, were glad to reach the river, 
where we could relieve our thirst. Saw four ante- 
lopes near Green River, to which the Delaware 



On the Verge of Hostilities 135 

immediately gave chase, but was unable to get 
within gunshot. 

Green River was broader and deeper than either 
Grand River or the Avonkarea, but its current 
was neither so rapid nor so turbulent. The scen- 
ery on its banks was grand and solemn, and we had 
an excellent view of it from our camping-place on a 
high bluff. 

The frame of the boat was commenced at once. 
Some Indians made their appearance on the op- 
posite shore, and one of them swam over to our 
side, assisted by a log, on which he occasionally 
rested. Day's travel, 35 miles; total distance, 
1 105 miles. 

July 25. At an early hour the men resumed 
their work on the boat ; the hides were found to be 
rotten and full of holes, as we had neglected to dry 
them after crossing the Avonkarea ; but by dint of 
patching with pieces of India-rubber blankets and 
sheepskins, and smearing the seams with a mixture 
of tallow, flour, soap, and pulverized charcoal, the 
boat was made sufficiently tight, that, with con- 
stant bailing, all the men and packs were carried 
over in four trips. I went with the first load to 
guard our packs, as Indians were on the left bank 
watching our proceedings. 

Lieut. Beale made great exertions to hiury the 
train over this river. He went across at every trip, 
jumping into the river where it was shallow, and 
taking the boat in tow until he was beyond his 
depth. He was thus for many hours in the water, 



136 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

encouraging the men by his example. We had 
now an excellent party; the men were daring and 
adroit; they exhibited no fear when we were so 
hard-pressed by the Utahs, and when exposure or 
toil was required of them, not one flinched from his 
duty. Some appeared almost to rejoice whenever 
there was a difficulty to overcome, and we never 
heard the Delaware's wild shout and laugh without 
suspecting that either he or his mtile had got into 
some predicament, either by sliding down a bank, 
or getting into the morass, or becoming entangled 
in a jungle. He never asked for help, and re- 
jected all assistance, relying on himself in every 
emergency. 

At sunset, the crossing of the Green River was 
effected, and we gladly gave the boat to the 
Indians, who ripped it to pieces to make moccasin 
soles of the hides. We proceeded a mile up the 
stream, and encamped in the midst of luxuriant 
grass. A band of twenty -five mounted Utahs 
accompanied us and passed the night in our camp ; 
we gave them food, and they seemed quite 
friendly. Their accounts of the Mormons corrob- 
orated what the Indians and Mexicans on the 
Avonkarea had told us. Day's travel, i mile; 
whole distance, ii 06 miles. 

July 28. Travelled twenty miles south by west, 
and halted at noon on the Rio del Moro (Castle 
Creek, so called on account of buttes near it 
resembling fortifications) . In ten miles from the 
San Rafael, crossed a broad brook of clear and cool 



On the Vere^e of Hostilities 137 



fc. 



water, running into Green River. Between the 
streams vegetation was scanty and stunted, and 
the soil clayey, dry, and barren; to the westward 
were steep hills, beyond which could be seen the 
green and wooded slopes of the Sah watch range. 

Noticed fresh tracks of animals going north, 
evidently those of cattle stolen by Indians from 
the Mormons. 

Our noon camp was near the point where Moro 
Creek issued from the mountains. The clayey soil 
of which they are composed had been washed by 
rains into the strangest shapes. At times, long 
lines of battlements presented themselves; at 
others, immense Gothic cathedrals, with all their 
quaint pinnacles and turrets, which reminded us 
of the ruined castles and churches that we had 
seen in our travels in the old world. The different 
colors of the clay added to the singularity of the 
scenery, and strengthened the resemblance. 

July 29. We encamped for the night, on the 
Salado, in a broad and level valley. Throughout 
the mountains the pasturage reminded us of that 
in the Sahwatch range, although in the valley it 
was less luxuriant. 

Soon after guard was set for the night, an 
attempt was made by Indians to stampede our 
animals. The watchfulness of the man on guard, 
however, defeated their purpose; he fired, but 
missed them. One of the mules was slightly 
wounded by an arrow. Day's travel, 30 miles; 
whole distance, 1222 miles. 



138 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

August 2. We were now approaching another 
stage in our journey which we were impatient to 
reach. The Mormon settlements near Las Vegas 
de Santa Clara were at a short distance, and we 
made an early start in the hope of reaching them 
before dark. We descended the mountains in a 
westerly direction through an abundantly watered 
valley, ever3rwhere covered with grass. I found 
wild rye growing in great abimdance, the seed quite 
large and full. 

At dusk, on the previous day, we had discovered 
a party of mounted Indians examining us from a 
neighboring ridge, and were on the lookout for 
them all the morning. Soon after sunrise a few 
Pah-Utahs, the first of that tribe which we had 
seen, came running down a hillside to meet us, and 
accosting us in a friendly manner, asked whether 
we were Mormons or ' ' Swaps ' ' (Americans) . They 
informed us that a Mormon village was not far off, 
and Mr. Beale and I, riding in advance of our 
party, in a few hours arrived at the town of Para- 
goona, in Little Salt Lake Valley, near Las Vegas 
de vSanta Clara. 

Paragoona is situated in the valley of the Little 
Salt Lake and lies near the foot of the moimtains 
which form its eastern boundary, at four miles 
from the lake. It contains about thirty houses, 
which, although built of adobes, present a neat and 
comfortable appearance. The adobes are small 
and well pressed, and are made of a pink-colored 
clay. The houses are built to form a quadrangle, 



On the Verge of Hostilities 139 

the spaces between them being protected by a 
strong stockade of pine pickets. Outside of the 
village is an area of fifty acres inclosed within a 
single fence, and cultivated in common by the 
inhabitants. It is called The Field and a stream 
from the Sahwatch Mountains irrigates it, after 
supplying the town with water. 

The Mormons have found iron ore in the 
mountains, where they have established several 
smelting furnaces; they stated that it was of 
an excellent quality, and that the mines were 
inexhaustible. 

Shortly before our arrival in the Territory, hos- 
tilities had broken out between Walkah, a Utah 
chief, and the Mormons, and we found them in a 
state of great alarm and excitement in consequence 
of some of his recent acts. 

We did not remain long at Paragoona; for soon 
after our anival the inhabitants, in obedience to a 
mandate from Governor Brigham Young, com- 
menced removing to the town of Parawan, four 
miles to the southward, as he considered it unsafe, 
with the smallness of their number, for them to 
remain at Paragoona. It was to us a strange sight 
to witness the alacrity with which these people 
obeyed an order which compelled them to destroy 
in an instant the fruits of two years' labor; and 
no time was lost in commencing the work of 
destruction. Their houses were demolished, the 
doors, windows, and all portable woodwork being 
reserved for future dwellings; and wagons were 



140 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

soon on the road to Parawan, loaded with their 
furniture and other property. 

We left Paragoona in the afternoon, and rode 
to Parawan over an excellent wagon-road, made 
and kept in repair, and bridged in many places, by 
the Mormons. We passed, at a mile on our left, a 
large grist and sawmill worked by water power. 

This ride to Parawan formed a strange contrast 
to our late journeying through the wilderness. 
At all the cross-roads were finger-posts, and mile- 
stones measured the distances. 

Parawan is situated at the base of the moun- 
tains, and contains about one hundred houses, 
built in a square and facing inwards. In their 
rear, and outside of the town, are vegetable gar- 
dens, each dwelling having a lot running back about 
one hundred yards. By an excellent system of 
irrigation, water is brought to the front and rear of 
each house, and through the centre and outside 
boimdary of each garden lot. The houses are 
ornamented in front with small flower-gardens, 
which are fenced off from the square, and shaded 
with trees. The Field covers about four hundred 
acres, and was in a high state of cultivation, the 
wheat and com being as fine as any that we had 
seen in the States ; the people took a laudable pride 
in showing us what they had accomplished in so 
short a time, and against so many obstacles. Day's 
travel, 32 miles; whole distance, 1345 miles. 

August 3. Most of the day was spent in having 
the animals shod, and in getting extra shoes made 



On the Verge of Hostilities 141 

to replace those which might be lost in crossing the 
desert region between the Vegas de Santa Clara 
and Mohaveh River. An American blacksmith 
assisted by a couple of Pah-Utah youths did this 
work, and we were surprised to see what skilful 
workmen these Indians made. Most of the Mor- 
mon families have one or more Pah-Utah children, 
whom they had bought from their parents; they 
were treated with kindness, and even tenderness; 
were taught to call their protectors "father" and 
"mother" and instructed in the rudiments of 
education. The Mormon nilers encourage a sys- 
tem which ameliorates the condition of these chil- 
dren by removing them from the influence of their 
savage parents, but their laws forbid their being 
taken out of the Territory. The children are not 
interdicted from intercourse with their people, 
who are allowed freely to enter the town; but the 
latter evince very little interest in their offspring, 
for having sold them to the whites, they no longer 
consider them their kith or kin. 

The water of Little Salt Lake is as briny, we 
were told, as that of Great Salt Lake, and we 
noticed that its shores were covered with saline 
incrustations for a mile or more from the water's 
edge; but the Mormons stated that the salt was 
of little value, being impregnated with saleratus 
and other alkaline matter, which rendered it unfit 
for use. They obtain their supplies of this article 
from mines of rock-salt in the mountains. 

The excitement occasioned by the threats of 



142 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Walkah, the Utah chief, continued to increase diir- 
ing the day we spent at Parawan. Families 
flocked in from Paragoona, and other small settle- 
ments and farms, bringing with them their mova- 
bles, and their flocks and herds. Parties of 
mounted men, well armed, patrolled the country; 
expresses came in from different quarters, bringing 
accounts of attacks by the Indians, on small parties 
and unprotected farms and houses. During our 
stay, Walkah sent in a polite message to Colonel 
G. A. Smith, who had military command of the 
district, and governed it by martial law, telling 
him that, "The Mormons were d — d fools for 
abandoning their houses and towns, for he did not 
intend to molest them there, as it was his intention 
to confine his depredations to their cattle, and that 
he advised them to return and mind their crops, for, 
if they neglected them, they would starve, and be 
obliged to leave the country, which was not what 
he desired, for then there would be no cattle for 
him to take." He ended by declaring war for 
four years. This message did not tend to allay 
the fears of the Mormons, who, in this district, 
were mostly foreigners, and stood in great awe of 
Indians. 

The Utah chieftain who occasioned all this panic 
and excitement is a man of great subtlety and 
indomitable energy. He is not a Utah by birth, 
but has acquired such an extraordinary ascendency 
over that tribe by his daring exploits, that all the 
restless spirits and ambitious young warriors in it 



On the Verge of Hostilities 143 

have joined his standard. Having an unlimited 
supply of fine horses, and being inured to every 
fatigue and privation, he keeps the territories of 
New Mexico and Utah, the provinces of Chihuahua 
and Sonora, and the southern portion of California 
in constant alarm. His movements are so rapid, 
and his plans so skilfully and so secretly laid, that 
he has never once failed in any enterprise and has 
scarcely disappeared from one district before he is 
heard of in another. He frequently divides his 
men into two or more bands, which making their 
appearance at different points at the same time, 
each headed, it is given out, by the dreaded Walkah 
in person, has given him, with the ignorant Mexi- 
cans, the attribute of ubiquity. The principal 
object of his forays is to drive off horses and cattle, 
but more particularly the first; and among the 
Utahs we noticed horses with brands familiar to 
us in New Mexico and California. 

He has adopted the name of Walker (corrupted 
to Walkah) on account of the close intimacy and 
friendship which in former days united him to Joe 
Walker, an old mountaineer, and the same who 
discovered Walker's Pass in the Sierra Nevada. 

This chief had a brother as valiant and crafty 
as himself to whom he was greatly attached. Both 
speaking Spanish and broken English they were 
enabled to maintain intercourse with the whites 
without the aid of an interpreter. This brother 
the Mormons thought they had killed, for, having 
repelled a night attack on a mill, which was led by 



144 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

him, on the next morning they found a rifle and 
a hatchet which they recognized as his, and also 
traces of blood and tracks of men apparently carry- 
ing a heavy body. Although rejoicing at the death 
of one of their most implacable enemies, the Mor- 
mons dreaded the wrath of the great chieftain, 
which they felt would not be appeased until he 
had avenged his brother's blood in their own. The 
Mormons were surprised at our having passed in 
safety through Walkah's territory, and they did 
not know to what they were to attribute oiu* escape 
from destruction. They told us that the cattle 
tracks which we had seen a few days previous were 
those of a portion of a large drove lifted by Walkah, 
and that the mounted men we had noticed in the 
mountains in the evening of August ist were scouts 
sent out by him to watch our movements. They 
endeavored to dissuade us from prosecuting our 
journey, for they stated that it was unsafe to travel 
even between their towns without an escort of 
from twenty-five to thirty men. 

The Mormons had published a reward of fifteen 
thousand dollars for Walkah's head, but it was a 
serious question among them who should "bell 
the cat." 

We procured at Parawan a small supply of flour 
and some beef, which we huccanee'd. 

The kind reception that we received from the 
inhabitants of these settlements, during our short 
sojourn among them, strongly contrasted with 
what we had been led to anticipate from the reports 



On the Verge of Hostilities 145 

of the Mexicans and Indians whom we had met on 
the road. On our arrival, Colonel G. A. Smith 
sent an officer to inquire who we were, our business, 
destination, etc., at the same time apologizing for 
the inquiries, by stating that the disturbed con- 
dition of the country rendered it necessary to 
exercise a strict vigilance over all strangers, par- 
ticularly over those who came from the direction 
of their enemy's territory. 

Mr. Beale's replies being, of course, satisfactory, 
we were treated as friends, and received every mark 
of cordiality. We spent the evening of our arrival 
in Parawan at the house of Col. Smith, who was in 
command of this portion of the territory, and was 
organizing a military force for its protection. He 
related to us the origin of these southern settle- 
ments, the many difficulties and hardships that 
they had to contend with, and gave us much inter- 
esting information concerning the geography of the 
surrounding country. He also stated that fur- 
naces for smelting iron ore were already in opera- 
tion in the vicinity of Paragoona and Parawan, 
and that the metal, which was obtained in sufficient 
quantity to supply any demand, was also of an 
excellent quality ; and that veins of coal had been 
found near Cedar City, on Coal Creek, eighteen 
miles south of Parawan, one of which was fifteen 
feet in thickness, and apparently inexhaustible. 
A large force of English miners were employed in' 
working these mines, and pronoimced the coal to 
be equal to the best English coal. I saw it used in 



146 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the forges; it is bitiiminous and bums with a 
bright flame. 

As regards the odious practice of polygamy 
which these people have engrafted on their religion, 
it is not to be supposed that we could learn much 
about it during our short stay, and its existence 
would even have been unobserved by us, had not 
a "saint" voluntarily informed us that he was 
"one of those Mormons who believed in a plural- 
ity of wives," and added, "for my part I have 
six, and this is one of them," pointing to a female 
who was present. Taking this subject for his text, 
he delivered a discourse highly eulogistic of the 
institution of marriage, as seen from the Mormon 
point of view. He spoke of the antiquity of 
polygamy, its advantages, the evils it prevents, 
quoting the example of the patriarchs, and of 
eastern nations, and backing his argument with 
statistics of the relative number of males and 
females born, obtained no doubt from the same 
source as the Book of Mormon. This discourse 
did not increase our respect for the tenets he ad- 
vocated, but we deemed it useless to engage in 
a controversy with one who made use of such 
sophistry. From what he said, I inferred that a 
large number of Mormons do not entirely approve 
of the "spiritual wife" system, and judging from 
some of the households, it was evident that the 
weaker vessel has in many instances here, as else- 
where, the control of the menage. 



CHAPTER IX 
The Desert Journey 

The Mormon Wagon Trail — Joy of the Pah-Utahs — 
Famous Horse Thieves — The Traffic in Children — Rio 
de la Virgen — The first Jornada — Muddy Creek and 
the Spring of Gaetan — Pah-Utah Billingsgate — The 
End of a Mormon Explorer — The Second Jornada — 
Twenty Hours without Water — The Oasis of Tio Meso 
— The Mohaveh River — The Valley of the Santa Ana — 
San Bernardino Mountain — The Settlements and Los 
. Angeles — Benton's Letters and Congratulations. 

WE left Parawan at dusk, having sent most 
of the party in advance with directions 
to await our arrival at the nearest of 
those rich meadows known as Las Vegas de Santa 
Clara, about eighteen miles distant. 

August 4. We now travelled on the Mormon 
wagon-trail leading to San Bernardino, in the south 
of California. We had heard of another route 
leading west to Owen's River, thence through a 
pass in the Sierra Nevada, which leads into the 
Tulare Valley near the head of the Four Creeks; 
but unfortunately we were unable to take this 
route, for we could neither obtain a guide nor even 

147 



148 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

information on the subject; moreover, it would 
have been departing from his plan, of examining 
the country on the Mohaveh, for the purpose of 
locating Indians there, for Lieut. Beale to have 
altered his course. The route by Owen's River 
shortens the distance nearly two hundred miles, 
cutting off the large elbow to the southwest, and 
according to the accounts we had received it con- 
ducts over a tolerably level, well-watered, and 
grassy country. 

August 6. The Santa Clara at our encampment 
was a slender rill; but a few miles lower down its 
volume was considerably increased by the accession 
of several streams. 

We were now approaching the desert, and we this 
day travelled only ten miles, to allow our animals 
to recruit by rest and food. The road followed 
down the stream, and although level, was much 
overgrown with bushes. 

After travelling a few miles, we met a small party 
of Pah-Utah Indians, who evinced great joy at 
seeing us, accosting us without fear. On approach- 
ing their village, a collection of miserable bush huts, 
we were met by an aged Indian, apparently their 
chief, holding in his hand a pipe the stem of which 
was a reed and the bowl a piece of tin. With much 
gravity, he bade us welcome to his village, and 
after blowing three wreaths of smoke toward the 
sun, he offered us their symbol of friendship, with 
which we imitated his example. As soon as we 
had dismounted, a venerable squaw, laboring under 



The Desert Journey 149 

great excitement, rushed towards Lieut. Beale, 
and seizing his hands, forced into them a couple 
of green tunias (prickly pears) which she invited 
him to eat, a ceremony, I have no doubt, having 
a meaning as mystical as the first. And having 
thus entered into bonds to keep the peace and 
complied with all the exigencies of etiquette, we 
were considered the guests of the nation. 

Among these Indians we witnessed one of the 
benefits which they have derived from their inter- 
course with the Mormons, who take every oppor- 
tunity to ameliorate the condition of this wretched 
tribe. Near their village was a large and well- 
irrigated field, cultivated with care, and planted 
with corn, pumpkins, squashes, and melons. 

The Pah-Utah Indians are the greatest horse 
thieves on the continent. Rarely attempting the 
bold coups-de-main of the Utahs, they dog travel- 
lers during their march and follow on their trail 
like jackals, cutting off any stragglers whom they 
can surprise and overpower, and pick up such 
animals as stray from the band or lag behind from 
fatigue. At night, lurking around the camp, and 
concealing themselves behind rocks and bushes, 
they communicate with each other by imitating 
the sounds of birds and animals. They never 
ride, but use as food the horses and mules that they 
steal, and, if within arrow-shot of one of these 
animals, a poisoned shaft secures him as their 
prize. Their arms are bows and arrows tipped 
with obsidian, and lances sometimes pointed with 



150 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

iron, which they obtain from the wrecks of wagons 
found along the road; they also used a pronged 
stick to drag lizards from their holes. 

The Indians being apprehensive that our animals 
might trespass on their field, which was without 
inclosure, we permitted them to drive the band 
several miles up the stream, where we had noticed 
an abundance of white clover; and, whilst thus 
confiding in them, we had security for their honesty 
by several Indians passing the night in our camp, 
where they lay near the fire, coiled up like dogs; 
besides which their women and children, and entire 
crops, on which they depended for their subsistence 
during the approaching winter, were also in our 
power. 

In the afternoon we visited their huts, which 
presented a squalid scene of dirt and wretchedness. 
When the women saw us approaching they con- 
cealed their children, fearing that we might wish 
to carry them off. Noticing that something moved 
under a large wicker basket, one of us examined 
its contents, which were found to be a little naked 
fellow, his teeth chattering with fear. 

Yearly expeditions are fitted out in New Mexico 
to trade with the Pah-Utahs for their children, 
and recourse is often had to foul means to force 
their parents to part with them. So common is it 
to make a raid for this purpose, that it is considered 
as no more objectionable than to go on a buffalo or 
a mustang hunt. One of our men, Jose Gallengo, 
who was an old hand at this species of man-hunting, 



The Desert Journey 151 

related to us, with evident gusto, numerous anec- 
dotes on this subject; and as we approached the 
village, he rode up to Lieut. Beale, and eagerly pro- 
posed to him that we should "charge on it like 
h-1, kill the mans and maybe catch some of the 
little boys and gals.'' 

Camp was all day crowded with men and squaws ; 
the former had reduced their costume to first 
principles, and even the latter were attired in a 
style of the most primitive simplicity. They spoke 
with great volubility and vehemence, using many 
gesticulations, regardless of the common usage of 
other Indians, of speaking but one at a time. It 
appeared as though they thought aloud, and were 
not addressing any one in particular. Our ragged 
and forlorn appearance, unshaven chins, and sun- 
scarred visages excited great merriment, and they 
used no ceremony in pointing and laughing at us. 
Day's travel, 10 miles; whole distance, 1439 miles. 

August 7. The Indians drove our animals into 
camp before dawn, and we were on the road at 
sunrise, travelling down the Santa Clara. In ten 
miles the road diverged to the right from the creek, 
and for eight miles passed through a region of 
rugged and arid hills and canyons, when it issued 
upon an inclined plane leading to the Rio de la 
Virgen. Although generally level, it was a rough 
road for wagons, and with the exception of one good 
spring, four miles from the Santa Clara, we saw no 
water until we encamped on the Virgen. A scanty 
growth of cactus, Agave americana, grease wood, 



152 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

and small cedars, was the only vegetation after 
leaving the creek. A Pah-Utah handed me some 
ears of wheat, the grains of which I preserved, and 
he stated that it grows spontaneously near the 
Santa Clara. It is from this stock that the New 
Mexicans have obtained the seed which they call 
Payute wheat, and the Mormons, Taos wheat. 
It has been much improved by cultivation, and is 
considered the best in New Mexico and Utah. A 
party of Indians accompanied us for twelve miles, 
begging for tahac, and we noticed several smokes 
during the day, and fires after dark, made by the 
natives on the Virgen, to warn the country of our 
approach. We set double guard at night, and the 
mules evinced by their restlessness and uneasiness 
the vicinity of Pah-Utahs. Day's travel, 35 miles ; 
whole distance, 1474 miles. 

August 8. The Rio de la Virgen is a turbid and 
shallow stream, about twelve yards in breadth. 
It flows with a rapid current over a sandy bed, and 
as we descended it, the growth of cotton wood gave 
place to mesquit trees and willows. The mesquit 
tree bears in some localities an abundance of sweet 
pods, on which mules feed greedily, and they are 
a good substitute for com, being almost as nutri- 
tious. We crossed scanty patches of wiry salt 
grass, which affords but little nourishment. 

The river bottom was hemmed in by bluffs, 
beyond which, on the right, was an extensive plain 
much cut up by gullies, and on the left a range of 
dark mountains, which in many places came down 



The Desert Journey 153 

to the river's edge. The road which followed down 
the bottom was at times through deep sand, as 
was mostly the case since leaving the Vegas de 
Santa Clara. The scenery was gloomy and for- 
bidding, and gave indication that we were ap- 
proaching a wild and desolate region. We noticed 
during the day many fresh Indian tracks, and at 
times caught glimpses of dark forms gliding 
through the bushes on either side. Day's march, 
29 miles ; whole distance, 1 503 miles. 

August 9. By keeping a watchful guard, our 
animals were saved from the Pah-Utahs, who 
hovered around us all night. 

We rode down the Virgen ten miles farther, 
when we left it to cross the hot and sterile plain, 
eight miles broad, extending between the Virgen 
and the Rio Atascoso (Muddy Creek). It was 
thickly covered with sharp flints, and bore a scanty 
growth of stunted mesquit bushes, which on the 
dry plains bear few pods ; for a couple of miles from 
each stream the coimtry was much broken by 
ravines. 

Rio Atascoso is a narrow stream, but in many 
places quite deep ; its water is clear, and it derives 
its name from the slimy and miry nature of its 
banks and bed. Day's march, 18 miles; whole 
distance, 1521 miles. 

August 10. We again had Indians around us 
all night, making their usual signals, but by keeping 
a strict double guard they were prevented from 
stealing or wounding our animals. Soon after 



154 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

sunrise, a party of Pah-Utahs showed their heads 
from behind some rocks near camp, and shouted 
to us; finding that we did not attempt to molest 
them, they cautiously exposed more of their per- 
sons, and finally dropped among us by twos and 
threes, until they numbered fifteen. They pro- 
fessed entire innocence of being concerned in the 
proceedings of the previous night, laying them all to 
the charge of other Pah-Utahs and expressed for 
us the warmest attachment. 

At this time a strange figure, entirely divested of 
clothing, suddenly made his appearance on the 
summit of a rock thirty yards from us ; his face was 
covered with a thick coating of crimson paint; a 
slender bone, eight inches in length, was thrust 
through the septum of his nose, and in his left 
hand he carried a bow and a bunch of arrows. 
This worthy addressed us a long speech, intro- 
ducing himself as the great chief of all the Pah- 
Utahs (which was false, as they recognize no chief), 
intimating that the monotonous existence which 
he had hitherto been leading had become irksome 
to him, that he wished to travel and see the white 
man's world, and that, if we consented to admit 
him into our company, he would endeavor to 
"make himself generally useful." He ended by 
offering to give himself away to any one who would 
accept of him. Although any accession to our 
nimiber was not at all desirable, to have refused his 
request would have nipped in the bud the aspira- 
tions of this ambitious youth. Lieut. Beale there- 



The Desert Journey 155 

fore allowed him to join our party, handed him a 
pair of old buckskin pants and a woollen shirt, 
which he at once donned, feeling very proud but 
very uncomfortable. 

The first Jornada (long distance between water) 
across the desert commences at the Muddy; and 
to avoid the heat, which at this season is very- 
oppressive during the day, we did not resume our 
journey until afternoon. The road led us for six 
miles up a broad and sandy ravine, issuing from 
which we entered upon an extensive and undulating 
plain, whose sandy and stony soil produced no 
vegetation except artemisia. We travelled all 
night, during which a hot wind blew from the 
southward. 

August 1 1 . Dawn found us still on the Jornada, 
between Muddy Creek and the Ojo del Gaetan 
(Spring of Gaetan), or Vega Quintana as this 
meadow is sometimes called, which we reached at 
8 A.M. without loss of an animal. Thus far we had 
lost three mules ; one was drowned in the Uncom- 
pagre, another was left on the Virgen, and the third 
at the Muddy. Both of the latter were animals 
that we had obtained on the journey, and being 
unshod, became "tender-footed" and were unable 
to keep up with the train. 

The Vega Quintana is a meadow of several 
thousand acres in extent, watered through its 
centre by two deep but narrow streams of clear and 
icy cold water. It is shaded in many places with 
mesquit trees, willows, and vines covered with 



156 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

clusters of small but sweet grapes. Two Pah- 
Utahs, who were gathering mesquit beans, fled in 
alarm at our approach, and we saw nimierous 
coveys of the California partridge. This oasis 
deserves the name of The Diamond of the Desert, 
so Ijeautiful and bright does it appear in the centre 
of the dreary waste that surroimds it. Dusty and 
weary as we were, after our long and toilsome ride, 
a bath in the brook was a luxury in which we 
indulged more than once diuing the day that we 
spent here. Day's march, 45 miles ; whole distance, 
1566 miles. 

August 13. Wearied with watching all night, 
we resumed our journey at dawn. Indians were 
around us as usual, and any signs of their vicinity, 
which would have escaped our notice, were pointed 
out to us by "Pite" as we had christened our new 
follower. We had scarcely started, before a 
torrent of yells and abuse were poured upon us from 
every side. No one cotdd be perceived, but every 
rock and bush apparently concealed an Indian. 
"Pite" was not slow in replying to them, and for 
a moment they were silent with astonishment at 
receiving in such piu*e vernacular a reply to their 
insults. Soon, however, the war of words was 
renewed with fresh fury, and had we understood 
them, we should doubtless have enjoyed a very 
choice specimen of Pah-Utah billingsgate. "Pite" 
prudently kept close among us; brave as he was 
with his tongue, he entertained fear of falling 
into the hands of his fellow countrymen, for 



The Desert Journey 157 

they would soon have brought his travels to a 
close. 

Our road led us through a canyon or chasm which 
we had entered the previous day; it followed the 
bed of the stream, and was much obstructed by 
heavy sand and scattered rocks. We passed two 
singular caves, one of which presented a close 
resemblance to the Cyclopean order of architecture, 
with the principle of the arch and keystone ad- 
mirably preserved. The other forcibly reminded us 
of the facade of an old Catholic chiu*ch, such as is 
often seen in Italy. 

After travelling ten miles through rocky ravines, 
with bald and furrowed mountains on either side, 
we ascended a ridge which brought in view an 
extensive and barren plain, bounded on all sides by 
lofty mountains. To the westward we perceived 
a range which extended from north to south, and 
which appeared to have frequent breaks in it. 

In the afternoon, we arrived at the Aqua Escar- 
bada, where we expected to have to dig for water; 
but the ground had been so deeply excavated that 
a running spring had been reached. 

Shortly before reaching this place, we found on 
the roadside the remains of an American, with 
the mark of a rifle-ball in his skull. From papers 
which were scattered around, we ascertained that 
he was a Mormon on an exploring expedition, and 
his buckskin garments not having been wet by 
rain, proved that he had been killed this season. 
Day's travel, 25 miles; total, 1608 miles. 



158 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

August 14. A rapid descent down a sinuous 
ravine, from two to three miles in length, brought 
us to the sink in the plain, where is found the Ojo 
de Archilete (Archilete's Spring) at some distance 
from which are many small willows, but in its 
immediate vicinity there is a total absence of shade; 
the water is clear and cool, but slightly brackish. 
A cruel tragedy, heroically avenged by Kit Carson 
and Alexander Godey, and recorded by Fremont, 
occurred here in 1844, and has rendered this spot 
memorable; we foimd near the spring the skull of 
an Indian, killed perhaps in that affray. Day's 
travel, 22 miles; whole distance, 1630 miles. 

August 15. A ride of five miles brought us to 
the Amargosa (Bitter Creek), a ravine containing 
a scanty supply of warm, fetid, and nauseating 
water, in a succession of holes. We encamped at 
the foot of a rock on its eastern side, where a 
slender brackish spring barely supplied our wants. 
The valley, or broad ravine, through which the 
Amargosa, during the rainy season, is for a few 
miles a running stream, winds with a general course 
from southeast to northwest, and is hemmed in dy 
steep, black and rocky hills. 

The second Jornada across the desert commences 
at the Amargosa, and ends at the Agua del Tio 
Meso (The Spring of Uncle Meso). It is fifty 
miles in length, and we anticipated much toil and 
suffering in crossing it. We endeavored to guard 
against the loss of our mules from hunger, by 
laying in a small supply of green reeds and mesquit 



The Desert Journey 159 

beans, the only forage, except salt grass, that could 
be obtained here; and, not expecting to find water 
the whole distance, all our canteens were filled. 

We commenced this dreary journey at 2 p.m. 
The heat was intense and, instead of diminishing 
as the sun descended, it became more oppressive. 
For twelve miles the road was over deep sand, into 
which the mules sank above their fetlocks. 

In fifteen miles, we diverged to the left across a 
spur of rocky hills, the road leading through a 
ravine, where, much to our surprise, we discovered 
the remains of houses, rastres (Mexican quartz 
crushers) and all the appliances of gold mining. 
These we subsequently ascertained were the Salt 
Spring Gold Mines, where a fortune had been 
sunk by men who were sufficiently deluded or 
sanguine to abandon the rich mines of California, 
travel across one hundred and fifty miles of desert, 
and live upwards of twelve months in a spot so 
desolate and forlorn that there is actually not 
sufficient vegetation to keep a goat from starvation. 
We here found two springs, one sulphurous and 
nauseating, the other brackish. The canteens 
were replenished, but it was impossible to water 
the mules. 

August 16. The heat increased as we advanced 
into the desert, and most of the party had divested 
themselves of the greater part of their clothing. 
The guns, which we carried across the pummels 
of our saddles, were hot to the touch ; and to add to 
our annoyance and suffering the wind, laden with 



i6o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

an impalpable sand, blew fiercely from the south- 
ward, feeling as if it issued from the mouth of a 
furnace, and obliterating in many places all traces 
of the road. The mules, already jaded by travel- 
ling across the sandy plain, went slowly along, 
their heads dropping to the ground. The pale 
moon, occasionally overshadowed by clouds, threw 
a ghastly light over the desert, and skeletons of 
animals glistening in her beams, strewed the way, 
adding horror to the scene. 

Shortly before dawn we entered some hills to 
the westward where the heat was less intense. 
Three of the mules were imable to go farther, and 
their saddles and packs were placed on other ani- 
mals, and men left with them, together with some 
reeds and beans and a small supply of water. We 
were now all on foot, our animals having barely 
sufficient strength to carry their saddles. At day- 
light we began to scatter and those who could go 
in advance did so, for our thirst was beginning to be 
intolerable. It was not until lo a.m., after twenty 
hours of continuous march, completely prostrated 
with heat, toil, hunger and thirst, that we reached 
the Agua del Tio Meso. 

This camping -ground (which is called on the 
maps Agua del Tomaso) has two small pools fed by 
tiny springs. The water in the pools we foimd 
barely drinkable; the grass was scanty and salt; 
but when mules are starving, they are not particu- 
lar in their choice of food. 

The men who had been left with the mules joined 



The Desert Journey i6i 

us late in the afternoon; they had suffered much, 
but brought in all the animals. Poor "Pite" was 
the last one in; his thirst was dreadful, and 
when he reached the spring he threw himself on 
the ground and drank to repletion. 

This spring is named after an old Mexican called 
Meso, who was styled Tio, or uncle, on account of 
his age. He discovered it when he and his party 
were nearly perishing with thirst. Their happy 
deliverance was celebrated by a great feast. 
He washed and dressed himself and rambled about 
the place singing until he fell dead, killed by a 
stroke of apoplexy. Two peons, abandoned on 
the desert by their master, reached this spring after 
their party had left for the Mohaveh. Unable to 
proceed farther, they both died of starvation, and 
the next travellers who encamped here found their 
skeletons locked in each other's embrace, as if they 
had expired in the act of devouring one another. 

These painful associations, together with the 
utterly desolate appearance of all around, cast a 
gloom over our spirits ; and we could not raise them, 
as old Tio Meso did, by a feast ; for all we had that 
day was a couple of spoonfuls of boiled pinole. 
The road across the Jornada is good, with the 
exception of the first twelve miles, where it is 
sandy. The only vegetation that I noticed was 
artemisia, on the plains, and mesquit and dry 
greasewood among the hills. Day's march, 55 
miles; whole distance, 1685 miles. 

August 17. The Agua del Tio Meso is an oasis; 



1 62 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

for, although a wretched spot, it is the only resting- 
place in the desert between the Amargosa and the 
River Mohaveh. We were glad to leave it at 4 a.m. 
Two of the mules soon showed signs of failing, and 
remained on the road in charge of one of the Mexi- 
cans. We rested for a few minutes at 10 a.m. to 
breakfast, having filled our canteens at Tio Meso's 
spring. The Delaware had killed a rabbit, the 
first of any game that we had seen for a long time; 
but we left it on the road, with some water, for the 
Mexican, as we feared that he might be delayed 
until late. 

The desert retained its level and monotonous 
character until we reached Mohaveh River, at 
7 P.M., our animals almost perishing from hunger 
and thirst. 

The sandy soil through which the Mohaveh 
flows absorbs nearly all its water, and where we 
struck it it was no longer a running stream. Grass, 
however, was everywhere abundant, together with 
a thick growth of willows, reeds, and mesquit 
bushes, interlaced with grape-vines; and in some 
places there were beautiful groves of cottonwoods. 

All our troubles as regarded a scarcity of water 
and grass were now at an end, and from this point 
our journey was over a level country, offering no 
impediment whatever to a good road as far as the 
settlements in California. Except on the edge of 
the river, however, the land was barren and unpro- 
ductive, offering no point fit for settlement. 

Lieut. Beale and myself had intended on reach- 



The Desert Journey 163 

ing the Mohaveh to have gone in advance of our 
people; but we could not leave them in their 
starving condition. It was also our intention to 
have selected two or three of the men to accompany 
us across the desert between the Mohaveh and 
Walker's Pass, in the Sierra Nevada; but we found 
that of all our animals there were not five that could 
travel over twenty miles a day, and, as the inter- 
vening country was entirely destitute of water and 
grass, we were compelled reluctantly to relinquish 
this prospect. 

The Mexican left with the mules arrived at 11 
P.M., having remained faithfully by them until he 
brought them in. We thus crossed this desert 
without abandoning a single animal, which is, I 
believe, almost imprecedented. Day's travel, 30 
miles ; whole distance, 1715 miles. 

August 19. The road was through heavy sand, 
and often left the river at a distance of two miles. 
We encamped at noon near a large and deep pond 
of very cool and clear water, alive with fish, prin- 
cipally mullets, some of which were large. We had 
just finished our allowance of pinole, when the 
Delaware rode into camp with a splendid antelope 
lashed behind his saddle, and reported that he 
had shot another, which was immediately sent for. 
As the question of starvation was now set at rest, 
it was determined that Mr. Beale and myself and 
two of the men should proceed as rapidly as our 
mules could travel, whilst the remainder of the 
party were to follow us by easy stages to the settle- 



164 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

ments. Day's travel, 19 miles; whole distance, 
1742 miles. 

August 20. Where we crossed the Mohaveh it 
was a rapid stream, twenty -five yards in breadth 
and one foot in depth, but its water was too warm 
to be drinkable. Passed several fine meadows near 
the river, and saw bands of antelopes, also hares 
and partridges. After a rest of seven hours we 
resumed our journey, the road leading up to an 
extensive plain, thickly covered with cedars and 
pines, intermingled with palmiyra cactus and 
aloes. It forks about ten miles from the river. 
The left-hand fork, which we took, follows the old 
Spanish trail, whilst the other, which had been 
recently opened by the Mormons, makes a bend 
to avoid a rough portion of coimtry. They both 
join again in the Cajon Pass. We travelled until 
II P.M., when we rested tmder the cedars on the 
plain, where we found dry bunch -grass, but no 
water. Day's travel, 40 miles; whole distance, 
1783 miles. 

August 2 1 . For the last time the cry of ' * catch 
up" was heard, and we saddled our mules before 
dawn, impatient to reach our journey's end. On 
approaching the motmtains which extended 
between us and the valley of Los Angeles, the 
country presented a more broken appearance. 
After travelling six miles, we commenced descend- 
ing the Pacific slope, and soon after reached the 
head waters of the Santa Ana, a creek rising to 
the eastward of the mountains, and which finds its 



The Desert Journey 165 

way through the Cajon Pass to the Pacific Ocean, 
south of San Pedro. 

We entered this pass, and the most magnificent 
scenery presented itself to our eyes. Around us 
were lofty mountains, their summits clothed with 
pines, while aroimd their bases grew chimsal, man- 
sanita, dwarf oaks, and aloes. In the valley were 
numerous clusters of sycamore, which attains here 
a large size, and is one of the most beautiful trees in 
the country. The ground was covered with innu- 
merable tracks of grizzly bears, and the Delaware 
kept a keen lookout for the rough-coated gentry. 
During our journey, he had killed at least one 
specimen of each species of game to be found in the 
region which we had traversed, and he was anxious 
to have an encotmter with the largest and fiercest 
of them all, the mighty grizzly of California; but 
he was disappointed ; although our men, in coming 
through this pass a few days later, had a desperate 
fight with a bear, which they finally overcame. 

We issued from the mountains at noon, when 
the beautiful valley of San Bernardino, with its 
stupendous mountain, broke upon our view. 
Never did so beautiftd a sight gladden the eyes 
of weary travellers, and having been in the saddle 
since dawn, we turned our jaded mules into a rich 
meadow, where the grass reached to their knees, 
and we rested under the shade of a grove of 
sycamores. 

Leaving the valley of San Bernardino behind 
us, we directed our course northwest in the direc- 



i66 Edward Fitzeerald Beale 



£)' 



tion of Los Angeles. We travelled steadily until 
nightfall without perceiving any signs of habita- 
tions, though our hopes were constantly kept alive 
by fresh tracks of men and cattle. Finally at nine 
o'clock when we were on the point of dismounting, 
our weary beasts being scarcely able to lift their 
feet, we were saluted by the cheering bark of a 
dog and in a few minutes found ourselves in the 
centre of a large cluster of buildings, and welcomed 
in the most friendly manner to Cocomongo Rancho, 
by the Mexican proprietor. Day's travel, 35 
miles; whole distance, 1817 miles. 

August 22. Our arrival at the Rancho de Coco- 
mongo will long be a green spot in our memories; 
and it was a pleasant sight to us to witness the 
satisfaction of our travel-worn mules in passing 
from unremitting toil and scanty food to complete 
rest and abundant nourishment. 

We obtained fresh horses, and a gallop of thirty- 
five miles through a rich and settled country 
brought us to the city of Los Angeles, where every 
kindness and attention was shown to us by 
Mr. Wilson, Indian Agent, and his accomplished 
lady. 

We had been given up for lost, and several parties 
had gone in search of us. Some of our friends had^ 
spent six weeks in Walker's Pass, where they ex- 
pected us to arrive, and had kept up fires by night 
and smokes by day on a point visible at a long dis- 
tance in the desert, to guide us in case we should 
have lost our way. Day's march, 35 miles; total 



The Desert Journey 167 

distance from West port, Missouri, to Los Angeles, 
California, 1852 miles. 

The remainder of our party arrived two days 
later, and thus, without serious accident to any of 
the men, and with the loss of only three of the mules, 
we accomplished the distance from Westport to 
Los Angeles in exactly one hundred days. Some 
of the party, however, had travelled seven hundred 
and fifteen miles more, in going to Taos from Grand 
River and in returning. 

As the following letter indicates, the arrival of 
the expedition was warmly welcomed by Colonel, 
afterwards Gen. E. A. Hitchcock, U. S. A., who was 
in command of the Pacific Division. Gen. Hitch- 
cock was a warm and loyal supporter of Beale 
throughout his Indian wars in the field as well as 
in the fonmi. 

Headquarters Pacific Division, 
San Francisco, Sept. 5th, 1853. 
Dear Sir: 

The Morning Herald has just announced the anxiously 
looked for news of your safe arrival in California once more. 
I sincerely congratulate you on the success of your adven- 
turous trip and shall be most happy to hear from yourself 
some account of your extraordinary journey. The news, 
among other immediate results, lighted up the countenance 
of Mr. Edwards^ who appeared to relish his office this 
morning — which I am sure he has not done for many weeks 
past. He told me a few moments since, that he intended 

' Mrs. Beale's brother and a companion of Gen. Beale in many of 
his journeys. 



i68 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

going out to meet you, and I have thought it a good oppor- 
tunity to say a word of our pubHc duties. Let me say, at 
once, that the sanction required from me, as Com'g. this 
Division, as a prerequisite to your locating an Indian farm 
or reservation, has in view, as I regard it, only this, that the 
place selected by you may be within reach of such military 
appliances as the plan contemplates, and it is only to this 
extent that I shall give any opinion. 

I shall not undertake to control your judgment in the 
slightest manner in what properly belongs to you as Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs. But as some measures of a 
military character were contemplated, looking to accessibil- 
ity and defence, it was doubtless thought proper that the 
Military Commander of the Division should have a voice 
on this point. Otherwise the Superintendent would vir- 
tually have the troops under his control, by selecting the 
site and compelhng the troops to occupy it. I mention this 
view in order to express the opinion that the Executive 
could have had no intention of superseding you in your 
proper duties. In view of this I desire to say that I con- 
sider it entirely within your own province to see that the 
law is complied with in respect to settlers and indeed in all 
other matters, and when you shall have satisfied yourself 
as to the best location I will indicate my opinions as to the 
practicability of defence. In order to come to an under- 
standing in regard to my part of it I will thank you to take 
an opportunity of seeing Capt. Jordan, at Fort Miller, who 
has recently traversed much of the Tulane country, and by 
explaining your wishes to him I shall obtain a report from 
him upon which to act myself; such a course being pointed 
out by my instructions from the Sec'y of War. 

It gives me the greatest pleasure to feel that you and 
myself will not seriously differ in opinion either as to the 
general object to be accompUshed or the best means of 
attaining it. I will venture to suggest that you would do 
well so to make your calcvilations as not only not to exceed 



The Desert Journey 169 

your means but to have something left for contingencies. 
For this purpose I would make as close an estimate of the 
probable expenses of a farm as possible, and if necessary, to 
keep within the provided means, I would commence with 
only one farm. I would on no account begin with the 
Indians on a scale beyond my ability to carry it through the 
year and would hold the power of going beyond my promises 
rather than falling short of them. 

We shall look for you soon and no one will be more happy 
to meet you than 

Yours very sincerely, 

E. A. Hitchcock, 
Col. U. S. Army. 
Ed. F. Beale, Esq., 
Supt. of Ind. Affairs, 
California. 
Fort Miller. 

During this adventurous period and indeed 
throughout his life Senator Benton was a con- 
stant correspondent of Beale 's. In the following 
letters written at this time a very charming side 
of the Missouri Tribune's character is revealed and 
the interest with which Beale's exploration of the 
Central Plain was followed in the East and at the 
seat of government in Washington is made very 
plain. 

Benton's praise of the young explorer is all the 
more generous when it is recalled that it was a 
sore disappointment to him at the moment, and a 
rank injustice for all time, that the command of 
one of the trans-continental expeditions sent out 
by the Administration had not been given to his 
son-in-law, Col. Fremont. 



I70 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Washington City, Oct. 3, '53. 

To Edward Beale, Esq. 

Dear Sir: 

Col. Fremont had to turn back for some illness after 
leaving the frontier to get medical assistance at St. Louis; 
but his party went on (ten good Delawares among them) to 
proceed until they entered the Buffalo range, and then to 
remain in a hunting encampment until he overtook them. 
He writes from St. Louis in good spirits and perfect confi- 
dence of making a complete survey. He desired me to 
send this message to you, which I do in his own words: 

"Please request of Mr. Beale to put his best animals at 
my rancho, or at any other convenient place, where they 
may recruit, and exchange them for mine when I reach 
CaHfomia. It is my intention to turn back immediately 
and make the return voyage with great rapidity. I had on 
my place, when I left California, upwards of twenty horses 
and mules. These animals, and the proposed exchange 
with Beale, would enable me to accomplish my purpose; 
but the animals ought to be all looked to and well cared for 
in the meanwhile." 

This is what he requests of you, and which you will no 
doubt take pleasure in doing as far as you can. I had 
wished to apply to the Secretary for leave for you to return 
with Fremont, but we have not yet heard of your arrival 
in the country, and therefore, cannot ask that favor at 
present. Our last advices from you are the letters from 
Mr. Heap at Taos, and which gave us the gratifying news 
of your having found good passes, good country, water, 
etc., altho' balked at the Grand River Fork of the Great 
Colorado. 

We have Santa Fe mails to the first of September, which 
was six weeks after Heap returned from Taos, and hearing 
nothing more of you on this side of the mountains, conclude 
that you have gone through. I enclose a slip which gives 
an account of Riggs and Rodgers. The former has stopped 



The Desert Journey 171 

in New York, and I think must be pretty well cured of 
gout. 

Let Mr. Heap know that I have a letter from his father 
as late as the i8th of August, when they were all well — as we 
are here. 

Yours sincerely, 

Thomas H. Benton. 

Washington City, Nov. 2, '53. 

Dear Edward: 

Your letter of the 29th Sep. giving a brief account of the 
Canada de las Uvas, and referring to a previous one, came 
safe to hand, but not so the one to which it refers, and which 
has not yet reached me. I am glad you explored that Pass. 
It adds to our choice of routes, but we wish to find one north 
of Walker's, and as near as possible in the straight line of 
travel, so as to cut off the elbow to the S. W. after leaving 
the Vegas de Santa Clara. I am looking for the Journal 
kept of your expedition, and will have it published in the 
National Intelligencer, whence it will go all over the U. S. 

Your expedition has been filling the U. S. during all the 
summer, and has fixed the character of the central route. 
The Government expeditions seem to be forgotten. Fre- 
mont resumed his expedition on the 15th ult. from St. Louis, 
taking a physician with him. 

I am sincerely glad that Hammond has been able to dispel 
the cloud of suspicion that had gathered against him. 
Somebody acted foully and villainously toward you, and 
time may show who it was. . . . 

Your friend, 

Thomas H. Benton. 

Dec. 3, '53. 

Dear Edward: 

You have gained a great deal of credit by your expedition, 
and established yourself with the country — the more so 



172 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

from the massacre of Gunnison's' party by the same tribe 
that was so hospitable to you. 

The Nat. Int. spreads it and it will be printed in pamph- 
let, with a map, which will bring you a heap de Vargent, 
beaiicoup de Vargent. Will also try and get Congress to 
reimburse your expenses. 

I think you should make a special report on the Indian 
department debts in California — reporting every one to the 
Government, that you can find out, with the justice, or 
injustice of each. 

This is due to bona fide claimants as well as to the govern- 
ment, that the good may be paid and a check had upon the 
bad. In your report give this as a special reason, in addi- 
tion to general duty, for making it. 

In that report you can well place the cattle which Fre- 
mont actually delivered to N. Y. agents. 
Affectionately, 

Thomas H. Benton, 

Senator from Missouri, 

Benton was never weary of praising Beale and 
pointing out the immense importance and value 
of his explorations to the country in general and in 
particular to his beloved St. Louis. Upon the 
return East, Benton met them and at a banquet 
which the city gave made the following remarks, 
which, necessarily very much condensed, I take 
from a St. Louis paper of the following day. 
"There before you, Gentlemen," said the Senator, 
"sit the heads of this remarkable party (pointing 

» Referring to the fate of the exploring and surveying expedition 
under the command of Col. John M. Gunnison, U. S. A., Gunnison 
with seven of his men was murdered by a band of Mormons and 
Indians near Sevier Lake, Utah, on October 26, 1853. 



The Desert Journey 173 

to Beale and Heap), they are young in years but 
old in experience and well tried in all the hardships 
and dangers of distant travel. The Superintend- 
ent, Mr. Beale, has made at least a dozen voyages 
by land or water to California, has been the com- 
rade of Fremont, Carson and other mountain men 
. . . and yet he is only twenty-eight, an age 
when the period of heroic life is still ahead." 
Benton then enumerated the supplies which 
the explorers took with them; it is not a long 
list and yet too long to be reproduced here. 
However, Benton adding up the total, says the 
whole outfit cost only eighty-six dollars and thirty 
cents and then preaches a sermon upon the 
economy shown. 

"This is the list of supplies all told and a blanket 
apiece and no tents. Some rifles to keep off the 
Indians and to bring down game . . . And this is 
the outfit for a fifty days' wilderness jaunt of yoimg 
men who at home wear fine linen and fare sump- 
tuously every day. Gentlemen, this is certainly sug- 
gestive of many conclusions such as that they are 
not a government parly, do not equip at public 
expense, did not graduate at West Point and do not 
intend to break down under the transportation of 
what is called, in the vernacular of the West, ' belly- ^ 
timber.' " 



CHAPTER X 
Indian Affairs 

State of the Indians in the Pacific Coast Territories — 
Indians Held to Peonage by the Whites — Fifteen 
Thousand Die of Starvation — Spaniards and Mexicans 
as Slave Drivers — Beale's Plan of Protected Reserva- 
tions for the Nation's Wards — Mr. Sebastian Supports 
the Plan in the Senate, and Secures the Desired Appro- 
priation — Beale's Indian Policy Endorsed by the 
MiHtary and Civil Officials in California — General 
Hitchcock's Letter — Opposition of Indian Agents — 
Massacres in Shasta and Scott Valley — General Rising 
of the Indians Feared — Beale Commissioned Briga- 
dier-General — As Peace Plenipotentiary Brings the 
Wariike Tribes to Terms — Beale's Defence of the 
Modocs. 

ONCE arrived upon the Pacific Coast, Gen. 
Beale addressed himself v^ith character- 
istic energy to the tremendous problem 
which anything like fair treatment for the Indians 
imposed. He held a census of his wards and found 
that the Indians numbered about seventy thou- 
sand "though they are," as he wrote to Washing- 
ton, "melting away every day before the pressure of 
the white population and owing to the harassing 

174 



Indian Affairs 175 

operation of circumstances over which we have 
no control." 

General Beale further wrote that he was con- 
vinced that more than fifteen thousand Indians had 
perished from starvation during the previous sea- 
son. He further describes at considerable length 
in his official correspondence many cases of peonage 
in which whole families and even villages of 
Indians had been involved and as a result were 
living in a state of servitude. Fortunately for the 
reputation of American citizenship he adds, "these 
slave drivers and those who were holding the 
pueblos in bondage are almost without exception 
Spaniards or Mexicans." 

It was apparent to General Beale that the system 
or rather want of system which he found in force 
would lead soon to an Indian war, or, if not would 
in a very few years end in the disappearance of his 
wards. A section and a very noisy section of the 
frontier population was in favor of exterminating 
the unfortunate savages who had large possessions 
but not the wit to defend them, and it required a 
man of General Beale's sturdy courage to oppose the 
plans for getting rid of the unfortunate race which 
were now showered upon him. What took place 
is perhaps best described in one of the speeches 
with which Senator Sebastian,' who had seen the 
General at work in the field, supported his policy. 

'William King Sebastian, born in Tennessee. U. S. Senator from 
Arkansas, 1853-61. During this time he was Chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs. 



176 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

I will not go on into further details [said the Senator]; 
that conditions are bad enough in all conscience will not 
be disputed I suppose. The moment Gen. Beale became 
satisfied that if the present order of things were permitted 
to long continue the results would be disastrous, he tried 
on a limited scale the plan which I now propose should be 
generally adopted. He congregated around about him 
upon a small reservation a number of Indians without inter- 
fering in the rights of property or occupancy of any citizen 
of California. Over one thousand of this simple tribe of 
Indians who are mild in their character, not wild like the 
Comanches or other tribes east of the Sierra Nevada, have 
flocked around him as their only protector from the misery 
by which they are surrounded and from the cruel persecu- 
tion by which they are pursued. Gen. Beale finds these 
simple people anxious for work and easily adapting them- 
selves to the changed condition of their affairs. Indeed 
such has been the extended success of the experiment which 
he undertook on his own responsibiUty that hundreds of 
other Indians are absolutely importuning him to place them 
under his immediate protection and allow them to work and 
to live. 

There can be no doubt about the success of the experi- 
ment upon the scale it has been tried, all observers agree in 
this favorable verdict, and so encouraged, all the Superin- 
tendent of the Indians asks is to be allowed a sufficient 
amount of money to extend the same system all over 
California. In this way it is believed that the entire Indian 
population can be congregated into small districts of coun- 
try which will not interfere with any existing white settle- 
ments and which can be protected from incursions. It is 
supposed that two hundred and fifty thousand dollars will 
suffice to carry out the plan. If the system is worth any- 
thing, and I think it will be successful once it is put into 
operation, it will be self-sustaining. 

Not only have we reason to expect this but I am assured 



Indian Affairs 177 

by General Beale and we all know he is a practical man that 
not only will the system prove self-sustaining but it will 
prove a useful auxiliary in reducing the expenses of the 
regular army Quartermaster's Department in that country. 
I have not entered into details because we have I am sure 
implicit confidence in the Superintendent and propose to 
let him carry out the details of his own plan in his own way. 

The following letter from Beale was also read to 
the Senate by Mr. Sebastian and helped greatly to 
carry the day for a more civilized treatment of the 
Indians. The letter was addressed to the Secretary 
of the Interior and reads : 

I have the honor to inform you that in obedience to your 
instructions dated Dec. 8th, 1852, I went over to the 
San Pablo Rancho in Contra Costa county to investigate 
the matter of alleged cruel treatment of Indians there. I 
found seventy-eight on the rancho and twelve back of 
Martinez and most of them were sick and without clothes 
or any food but the fruit of the buck-eye. Up to the time 
of my coming eighteen had died of starvation at one camp, 
how many at the others I could not find out. These 
Indians were brought into this country from some place 
near Clear Lake by Calif omians named Ramond Briones, 
Ramon Mes, etc., who have for some time made a business 
of catching Indians and of disposing of them in various 
ways. And I have been informed that many Indians have 
been murdered in these expeditions. 

These present Indians are the survivors of a band who 
were worked all last simimer and fall and as the winter set 
in, when broken down by hunger and labor and without 
food or clothes they were timied adrift to shift for them- 
selves as best they could. Your timely interference in 
behalf of these unfortunate people has saved the lives of 



178 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

most of them, for the Indians could not have lived through 
such weather as we have had without any food, clothing or 
shelter. 

I distributed all the well among families around who are 
to feed, clothe and protect them until your further orders. 
I have made provision for the sick to be fed and cared for. 
I am happy to inform you, to show the good character of 
these Indians that even when starving and surrounded with 
horses and cattle I heard no complaint of their stealing. 
These people could easily be made to support themselves 
and their condition changed for the better. The grand 
jury of the county has found bills against the Califomians 
above mentioned and I presume their trial will come on next 
term. 

On several other occasions in February, 1853, 
Mr. Sebastian, Chairman of the Committee on In- 
dian Affairs, addressed the Senate on the question 
of a fairer treatment of the Indians which General 
Beale had so courageously raised, much too coura- 
geously indeed to please many of his friends vi^ho 
had been longer in political circles and had lost the 
moral courage which characterized the sailor who 
had left his ship to become a pilot of the plains. 
In his speeches Mr. Sebastian read many extracts 
from General Beale's reports and warmly sup- 
ported the plans which the General submitted for 
adoption by the Government. The most notable of 
these speeches was delivered before a full and as yet 
unconvinced Senate on March 2nd, with the most 
happy result. Indeed it may be said without the 
slightest exaggeration that General Beale's humane 
work and Senator Sebastian's eloquent words laid 



Indian Affairs 179 

the foundation of a protective policy toward the 
Indians more in consonance with the demands of 
civiHzation than any that had been previously fol- 
lowed, and it was certainly not the fault of these 
pioneers who carried their principles with them 
across the Colorado that the policy which they 
instituted did not immediately bear fruit. Some 
of Senator Sebastian's statements in the course of 
the prolonged debate are not without interest or 
timeliness to-day. He said : 

The Amendment (which was but a paraphrase of Gen. 
Beale's recommendations given elsewhere) is approved I 
beHeve by the unanimous consent and earnest conviction 
of the Committee on Indian Affairs that some legislation 
of this kind is absolutely necessary to correct the state of 
affairs now prevailing in California which no one can wish to 
see continued. I beg that Senators will be startled neither 
at the amount asked for or at the almost unlimited power 
which it is found necessary to confer on the Superintendent 
for the Indians. We have often been called upon to legis- 
late for California on account of the state of things prevail- 
ing there and it was but natural for us to be called upon to 
make large appropriations. 

We attempted to extend the whole system of the Indian 
administration of that country by means of a superintendent 
and Indian agents. Now the first result of the agents going 
into the country was a return to the regime of the Nineteen 
Treaties which on account of their condemnation by an 
unquestionable public sentiment which reached even this 
body was laid upon the table without a dissenting voice. 
These treaties provided for large reservations and pledged 
this government to the payment of a large sum of money, 
a policy which did not meet the approbation of the delegates 



i8o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

from California. The next step which Congress took was 
to confide the entire subject of the Indian policy of that 
country to a resident Superintendent of Indian Affairs who 
is clothed with almost viceregal authority and who was 
made Indian Commissioner for California. I remember 
with what satisfaction the nomination of Gen. Beale to fill 
that office, a gallant officer and a gentleman eminently 
qualified for it, was received in this body. 

Now Gen. Beale has, after a complete investigation of the 
subject, made a report which for comprehensiveness of 
plan, for clearness of conception and above all for its prac- 
tical adaptation to the institutions of the country I think 
stands unequalled by other documents of this kind. 

What, Sir, may I ask is the necessity of the case? We 
find California in the possession of a large number of Indian 
tribes occupying the whole surface of the country. They 
have been in fact independent although in form dependent 
upon the mild paternal sway of Spanish rule. Our emi- 
grants went there and went with a kind of feeling which 
contented itself with nothing less than the possession of the 
whole country; the consequences have been an unvaried 
monotonous history of wars, murders, predatory incursions, 
starvation and great distress among the Indians ever 
since. The plan resorted to by the treaty making power 
has been unequal to the object in view and now it is recom- 
mended by Gen. Beale to collect the tribes together upon 
small military reservations which because they are miHtary 
can be removed according to the exigencies of the case. 
They can be placed here or removed there. It will entitle 
the Indians to protection against the whites which is more 
needed than protection against the Indians and I am satis- 
fied that nothing less than this will be acceptable to the 
people of California. There is a necessity to which we 
must accommodate ourselves in legislating for that country. 
There is a condition of things there which we must endeavor 
to remedy and the best method seems clearly to be found 



Indian Affairs i8i 

in Gen. Beale's plan. He would as you have been informed, 
congregate the Indians upon small military and agricultural 
reservations, sufficiently large to enable them to maintain 
life upon and then insist that all comers respect their rights. 

Mr. Sebastian then proposed the following 
amendment to the bill regulating Indian affairs, 
then before the Senate. It was read a third time 
and carried unanimously. It embodied General 
Beale's plan and gave him all the power and the 
facilities he then thought he would require to put 
an end to the shocking conditions in which he 
found the Indians living when he was called upon 
to take charge of their destinies. The amendment 
unanimously adopted read : 

That the President of the United States be and is hereby 
authorized to make five military reservations from the 
public domain in the state of California or in the territories 
of Utah and New Mexico bordering on said state for Indian 
purposes. Provided that such reservations shall not contain 
more than twenty-five thousand acres each and provided 
further that such reservations shall not be made on any 
lands inhabited by citizens of California and the sum of 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is hereby appro- 
priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise 
appropriated to defray the expense of subsisting the Indians 
in California and removing them to said reservation for 
protection. 

General Beale's Indian policy, as it developed, 
was warmly indorsed in letters from the Governor 
and the Lieutenant-Governor of California which 
they addressed to the President of the United States 



1 82 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

from Vallejo, California, in February, 1853. An 
even more valuable ally than Hon. John Bigler the 
Governor, developed in the person of General 
Hitchcock, who was continually addressing the 
Secretary of War in support of Beale's policy. 
Writing in November, 1852, General Hitchcock 
says: 

I deem it necessary for such use as the Hon. Secretary of 
War may think proper to express an opinion carefully 
formed in favor of the plan proposed recently by Gen. 
Beale, the Superintendent of Indians in this division for 
adjusting and placing on a permanent basis our relations 
with the Indians of this country. ... It appears to me 
that the choice of the Government lies necessarily between 
accepting Gen. Beale's plan or in giving the Indians over 
to rapid extermination or expulsion from the state. The 
objection to the plan is the apparently new poHcy of assum- 
ing direct control over the Indian lands and providing for 
the Indians, giving them the alternative of accepting such 
arrangements as the Government may make or of being 
treated or maltreated at the pleasure of the white settlers. 

In answer to this it should be considered that these 
Indians have never been recognized by the Spanish or 
Mexican governments as having independent rights in the 
county and therefore as far as they are concerned the pro- 
posed poHcy would introduce no decided change. In regard 
to the settlers it is not to be denied that there is serious 
difficulty but the real question is whether they shall in an 
unregulated manner determine our intercourse with the 
Indians, inducing expensive wars with other evils or whether 
the Government shall establish some limits and rules for 
this intercourse. 

By the plan proposed a small portion of land is to be set 
apart within which there is to be a military post and some 



Indian Affairs 183 

provision made for the subsistence of the Indians to be 
supplied as far as possible from their labor. Within this 
reserve the Indians are to be protected but not beyond it. 
This reserve would naturally be selected near the moun- 
tains, leaving the latter for the range of the Indians 
extending into the interior without limit. 

The system might be commenced with one or two posts 
at first where most needed as on the head-waters of the San 
Joaquin Valley at the base of the Sierra Nevada and at some 
point on the upper waters of the Sacramento, and the sys- 
tem could be extended as the requirements of the country 
and experience might indicate the necessity for it. 

The present course tends to exasperate a large body of 
Indians, a remnant of which in a very few years will be 
driven beyond the Sierra Nevada carrying with them a 
leaven of bitterness among extensive tribes with which we 
have as yet no intercourse. They would also carry with them 
some knowledge of firearms and an instructed spirit of war 
hitherto unknown on this coast and the result would not 
fail to be the most savage and desperate warfare for an 
indefinite period, making a pacific transit over the continent 
next to impossible for a great many years. 

It is a mistake, in my judgment, to suppose that the 
Indians on this coast except perhaps a few digger bands 
differ materially from those found by the pilgrims at Ply- 
mouth from whose descendants there sprang up in time a 
Philip and a Tecumseh. It is by no means certain that the 
seeds of dreadftd massacres and barbarities are not already 
sown. ... It is of manifest importance that there should 
be harmony of action between the Superintendent of Indian 
Affairs and the mihtary commander on this coast and, if I 
am to be retained on duty here I beg to express the wish 
that Mr. Beale may be continued in the superintendence of 
Indian affairs. He has a more extensive acquaintance with 
the Indians than any other man in the country and brings 
to the performance of his duties an earnest zeal, a humane 



184 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

spirit, an untiring perseverance and an honest inde- 
pendence. 

Agent McKee, in writing to the Secretary of the 
Interior a report which Mr. Beale endorsed, was 
particularly severe in his criticism of some mem- 
bers, indeed even of a small class of the border popu- 
lation. He says : 

In the meantime I design appealing to the Governor 
of the State to order a rigid scrutiny into the facts of 
these outrages and to take such measures as may be 
proper to bring the offenders to justice. In all the frontier 
settlements there are many men from Missouri, Oregon, 
Texas, etc., who value the life of an Indian just as they do 
that of a coyote or a wolf and embrace every opportunity to 
shoot them down. I despair of seeing the peace of these 
settlements fully established until the laws of the state are 
enforced and some terrible examples made, or until the 
government of the United States sends the military com- 
mandant of this division the men and the means to estab- 
lish several small military posts to protect the Indian from 
these attacks. 

The most flagrant case of ruthless killing re- 
ported by General Beale is the massacre of Trinity 
River. He writes : 

This river falling into the Pacific from the high rugged 
country some distance north of San Francisco is noted as 
the best in the country for salmon fish which constitutes 
almost the whole subsistence of the Indians. The whites 
took the whole river and crowded the Indians into the ster- 
ile mountains and when they came back for fish they were 
usually shot. If the Indians took cattle or were suspected 



Indian Affairs 185 

of taking cattle they were pursued and punished and their 
villages sometimes attacked. In the spring of last year 
some Indians were charged with taking cattle, a party went 
against their village, surrounded it at night, attacked at 
daybreak, killed the whole, chiefly consisting of women 
and children, the men being absent, except one woman and 
child who were taken prisoners. They carried home a 
bag full of scalps, believed to be about 130 and all with- 
out loss to themselves, which proves the character of the 
operation. 



There are of course, adds General Beale, many 
right thinking, considerate men in this country who 
deplore this savage spirit on the part of some of the 
settlers; but living so far from the county seats 
and with their own lives and property at risk they 
are afraid to speak out as they otherwise would. 

In concluding his official report General Beale 
made the following recommendations. Unhappily 
not all of these measures were approved. 



1st. For the immediate subsistence and support of the 
Indians the sum of half a million dollars. 

2d. For their permanent support and protection mili- 
tary reserves where a few soldiers can be stationed and 
where they will support themselves by labor. 

3d. That all the officers employed in California in 
the Indian service shall reside on these reserves or among 
the Indians. I myself have an abode between the Mari- 
posas and the San Joaquin about three hundred miles 
from San Francisco. 

4th. That the Indian agencies shall be abolished and 
six sub-agents be appointed at about fifteen hundred 



i86 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

dollars each to reside with the Indians and assist them 
in cultivation as well as discharging other duties. 

Washington, Feb. 25, 1853.' 

While doing the best he could for the Indians 
and for the dignity and well-being of the State of 
California, General Beale had been absolutely- 
ruthless in his campaign against corruption and 
inefficiency among the Indian agents and the con- 
tractors in their service. With an eye single to the 
public service and the interests of his wards, Gen- 
eral Beale had dismissed the venal officials without 
thought of personal or political considerations, and 
many agents were also removed from their lucrative 
posts pending investigation of their conduct. 

At first, and again at the end of Beale's ser- 
vice, he was heartily supported by the adminis- 
tration at home and by the officials of the Interior 
Department ; however, there was a time, an inter- 
regnum, when the men whom Beale had discharged 
for the good of the service, and the malcontents 
still in the service who were fearful that their short- 
comings might any day attract the attention of 
their eagle-eyed chief, had the audacity to conspire 
against their superintendent. The administration 
was not particularly friendly at this juncture with 
the friends' of General Beale. 



'Washington, April 2d, 1854. 
Dear Edward: 

I received your letter from Panama and think it well that Mrs. Beale 
join you — you have not much favor to expect here, and only fear gets 
you justice. But be of good heart, they cannot remove you, on account 



Indian Affairs 187 

California, the scene of his administration, and 
the Calif ornians, who could testify as to its value, 
were far away, while the chorus of dismissed and 
discredited Indian officials were assembled in 
Washington and were unhappily sustained by 
political backing of practical value. 

The moment, however, Beale's enemies were 
forced into making definite charges, their over- 
throw and confusion were near. I have noticed this 
trivial and as it would seem unavoidable incident 
in the life of any man who sets his face sternly 
against the temptation of corrupting influences, 
because of its delicious denouement. While General 
Beale was under fire his friends waited, but formed 
themselves into a court of honor, when the charges 
fell to the ground and Beale's vilifiers were routed 
and disgraced. Later the members of the court 
of honor published in the Washington papers, ac- 
cording to the custom then prevailing, the following 
statement of what had occurred. It was well 
received and the incident closed. 

The End of a Slander. — The newspapers of Saturday 
last published a telegraphic despatch, giving an account of 
a personal encounter the day previous between Lieut. 
Beale, and one , a Commissioner of Indian affairs, at one 

of the hold you have on the public mind. Your expedition and success 
in colonizing the Indians does the business for you. Write full accounts 
of your operations with the Indians, have them published — and they 

secure you. is a low fellow and naturally hates a man like you. 

But I have him on the anvil and will hammer him. 

Your old friend, 

Thomas H. Benton. 



1 88 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

of the hotels at Washington. The causes which led to the 
affair, as we have gathered them from those cognizant of all 
the circumstances, were these. 

It is well known that Lieutenant Beale, owing to his 
intimate acquaintance with the habits of the Indians and 
their mode of life was appointed by Mr. Fillmore, Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs in California. He held the 
office until after the election of the present President, and 
by the faithful discharge of his duties gave entire satisfac- 
tion to the Government. He was subsequently reappointed 
to the situation he then held by President Pierce at the 
earnest solicitation of those who knew his ability to manage 
the Indians in that part of our country. 

About a year since the administration deemed it neces- 
sary for political purposes to appoint a mere politician to 
the place held by Lieut. Beale, and as some pretext for his 
removal seemed to be called for, it was given out in Wash- 
ington, and then sent all over the country, that he was a 
defaulter to the Government in a large amount. This false 
charge reached him in California, and he at once left his 
post, returned to his home with his vouchers and submitted 
them to the proper officers for examination and settlement. 

After a delay of some eight months — during all of which 
time he was present to answer any objections which might 
be made to his disbursements — the accounting officers of the 
Treasury Department finally passed his accounts, which 
were afterwards taken up by the Secretary of the Treasury 
in person, and he was allowed every claim he had made in 
expending some three hundred and sixty thousand dollars 
of the public money — not a cent of which had adhered to 
his hands. 

Further than this, the officers who had charge of his 
accounts informed the Superintendent that his vouchers 
were examined with more than the usual scrutiny, owing to 

the reports which had been given out by as to the 

delinquency, and they congratulated him on the entire 



Indian Affairs 189 

satisfaction which their correctness had given them. This 
was a triumphant vindication from the charges which had 
been made by a bad man against the probity and honor of a 
faithful and efficient officer. 

The article charging Mr. Beale with being a defaulter to 
the Government appeared originally in The Evening Star 
at Washington. After his accounts, which had passed the 
searching examination before alluded to. were admitted 
to be correct, a number of his personal friends called upon 
the editor of the Star, and were frankly informed that the 

information had been furnished by , and that he, , 

had himself written the article charging Lieut. Beale with the 
defalcation! Mortified that he should thus be stabbed in 
the back by a functionary of the Government, at whose 
hands he had a right to expect justice, Mr. Beale embraced 
an opportunity which offered at the hotel where he so- 
journed, and properly punished the vilifier and slanderer, 
by slapping his face with his open hand in public — and this 
is the extent of the ^'outrage'' perpetrated by the Lieutenant. 
If an assault can be justified in any case then was this 

public castigation right and proper. attempted to 

ruin the reputation of an honest man in his absence. His 
accusation went abroad, and was believed by those who 
did not know the facts; and now the vindication of the 
charges, extorted from his accuser, and his public punish- 
ment will go together — the antidote to the poison. 

Do what he could, and Beale was certainly 
tireless in his activity, and despite the fact that his 
humane policy was warmly supported by all the 
best people in the country, official and unofficial. 
General Beale soon recognized that with the slender 
means at his command he could not secure for his 
wards the protection to which they were entitled 
and which had indeed been promised in solemn 



190 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

treaty. Beale sums up the situation in a letter to 
Washington written at this time. 

The condition of many of the Indian tribes is truly 
deplorable, they are driven from their hunting and fishing 
grounds and are in danger of starving. Many of them are 
made to work without compensation and massacres are 
taking place all the time. Only fifteen miles from San 
Francisco the Indians are often enslaved and made to work 
without pay and when the work season is over they are 
turned out to starve. 

Naturally the Indians, persecuted and starving 
as they were, endeavored to help themselves and 
naturally enough at last in true Indian fashion; 
white emigrants and colonists were massacred in 
Shasta and in Scott Valley and what was more 
alarming, the news came of a general rising of the 
Indians at Visalia and of their apparent prepara- 
tions to wage a war of extermination against the 
whites throughout the country. 

At this juncture, and it was certainly a case of 
better late than never, the California authorities 
bethought them of General Beale and of the extra- 
ordinary powerful personal influence he exercised 
over the Indians who had so long been his wards 
and who ever found in him a generous protector. 
He was placed in charge of the situation and was 
soon able to conjure the dangers and smooth out 
the difficulties with which it fairly bristled. The 
measures which General Beale adopted and which 
proved so efficient in the circumstances are de- 



Indian Affairs 191 

scribed with characteristic modesty in the follow- 
ing report to the Governor. To-day, with the 
Indians gone and populous cities rising on their 
happy hunting grounds, the most remarkable 
feature of the campaign that followed is the fact 
that United States officials and even United States 
troops acted throughout in perfect subordination to 
General Beale who in this instance held his com- 
mission from the State of California. This happy 
and most unusual co-operation was due in part at 
least to the great good -will of Gen. John E. Wool, 
U. S. A., who at this time most fortunately was in 
command of the Department of the Pacific. Gen- 
eral Wool was a warm personal friend of Beale and 
a sturdy supporter of his Indian policy and as 
several personal letters written by him to Beale "^ 
in later years attest, he recognized that at this 
critical moment in the history of the settlements on 
the Pacific, General Beale 's high reputation for fair 
dealing and his deep insight into Indian character 
were of more value than several regiments of 
dragoons and these, it might be added, were not 
immediately available, while General Beale was. 

The report of General Beale is dated San Fran- 
cisco, July 1 2th, 1855, and reads as follows : 

Governor: I have the honor to report that in obedience 
to instructions received from you I proceeded with all 
despatch to the scene of the Indian difficulties. I left San 
Francisco on the morning of the 28th of May last, accom- 

' See Beale papers in MS. 



192 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

panied by my Aide-de-camp Colonel Edward Byre. At 
midnight on the 5th day of June, I encamped on the banks 
of the King's River. In conversation with Mr. Campbell, 
sub-Indian agent stationed at this point, I learned that in 
consequence of the continued excitement of the whites, more 
particularly those living in and about the villages of Wood- 
ville and Visalia, rumors had reached the Indians that 
active hostilities would be at once commenced against them 
and they in consequence had fled to the mountains. 

I despatched early next morning Mr. Campbell, who 
speaks their language, with five bullocks and a message to 
them asking them to appoint some spot where I might hold 
a council. In the meantime I continued on to Elbow 
Creek. Here I found Lieutenant Livingston, Third Artil- 
lery encamped with some thirty of his men. I also fortu- 
nately met here Lieut. AUston of the dragoons who were 
encamped some ten miles to the south. These gentlemen 
corroborated the reports I had received relative to the 
violent measures contemplated by the whites. I then 
visited Visalia and Woodville and after consulting with 
several prominent citizens I deemed it best to call a general 
meeting of the people in the afternoon. It was very fully 
attended and those present seemed to think that nothing 
but a very severe punishment of the Indians would prevent 
future molestation of the whites. I fully explained to them 
the power that had been confided to me by your Excellency 
and urged upon them a more conciliatory spirit. I also 
invited several well-known citizens to accompany me to the 
proposed council ground. This plan met with their appro- 
bation and Mr. Campbell, after several days' absence, 
returned with the information that the Indians had de- 
spatched runners in every direction to call in their scattered 
bands and that they would meet me in a valley about thirty- 
five miles from Elbow Creek. 

I ordered Lieut. Allston's command of some forty dra- 
goons together with Lieut. Livingston's command of thirty 



Indian Affairs 193 

men to accompany me as escort. Early next morning we 
took up our line of march ; the weather was excessively hot 
and Lieut. Livingston's men being on foot suffered exceed- 
ingly from the heat and thirst and it was nearly midnight 
before they reached camp. The next morning I held council, 
some sixty or seventy Indians being present. The following 
tribes were represented by chiefs or captains: Monoes, 
Chokimauves, En Tennysich, Coilla, Yacolle, Talumne, Palu 
Paloushiss, Wirkachoumnies, Openochies, Tache Noo-tune- 
too and Chooeminees. Mr. O. K. Smith from Woodville and 
Dr. George from Visalia represented the citizens; Messrs. 
Campbell and Jennings, sub-Indian agents were also present. 

Through Gregorio, my Indian interpreter, a very intelli- 
gent man who accompanied Gen. Fremont to the Atlantic 
States and back and speaks English very well, I told them 
the object of my visit was if possible to make peace; that it 
was idle for them to attempt to cope with the whites in war- 
fare, that unless they would unconditionally promise to go 
where I deemed it best for them to live I had come prepared 
to inflict summary and severe chastisement upon them. 
They seemed very anxious for peace and after talking to 
them for about two hours I dismissed them to reflect well 
upon what I had said. Later in the afternoon I sent for 
them again and told them that all their people living upon 
the waters of the King River must go at once to the 
Reservation on King River, and that all their people Hving 
to the south of this stream must go to the Tocole Valley 
and to this they joyfully assented. 

I then distributed among them as presents the articles 
listed in the paper marked A accompanying my report. 
Finding now that a very large tribe living on and about 
Tule Lake were not represented, I despatched Indian run- 
ners that night to them with a message that unless they 
met me in -five days from that time in the Tocole valley for 
the purpose of making a treaty I should deem them to be 
at war and treat them accordingly. 



194 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

The next morning, the loth instant I broke up the camp 
and returned to Elbow Creek. On the morning of the 14th 
I went to the Couilla valley, some ten miles beyond Wood- 
ville with an escort of dragoons. Here over three hundred 
Indians were gathered and some forty citizens were also 
present. The Olanches, Piquirinals, Coyotes, Wacksaches, 
and Couillas were present. They said they were deHghted 
to meet me and were perfectly willing to do anything I 
desired of them. They further agreed, as the others had 
that they would preserve peace and remain in their present 
camp until the arrival of Col. Henley the Indian agent. 
[Here is inserted a list of property destroyed by the Indians 
which I omit.] 

The peace to be preserved requires first the presence of 
the Indian Commissioner and next the presence of about 
twenty-five dragoons in the field constantly. I went to 
Fort Tejon, and remained there constantly until the arrival 
of Col. B. L. Beall commanding the fort, of whom I made a 
request in writing that he should send a detachment into 
the field at once. He answered that he could not do so 
unless he received instructions from Gen. Wool. This 
post should be reinforced at once with another company so 
that one company could be constantly in the field. There 
would never be any trouble with the Indians if this were 
done. 

I arrived here via San Jose on the night of July loth. 
Hoping that my efforts will meet with your approbation, 

I have the honor to be 
Your Excellency's most obedient servant, 

Edward F. Beale, 
Brigadier-General, 
5th District. 

To the end of his life Beale was a generous and 
self-sacrificing friend of the Indians and to the 
end, as will be seen, the Indians were loyal to their 



Indian Affairs 195 

protector. It required courage to tell the truth con- 
cerning the treatment of the Modocs which pro- 
voked their uprising, especially at a moment when 
the whole country was in mourning for the gallant 
Canby. It required courage and it meant unpopu- 
larity, but without hesitation General Beale stepped 
into the breach with the following letter, which 
was first published in The Republican of Chester, 
Pennsylvania, on April 25, 1873. It was widely 
copied throughout the country and helped to 
steady public opinion with the result that a more 
civilized view of the situation was taken by the 
Government. It was the last signal service that 
Beale was able to render his former wards. He did 
it cheerfully, though it cost him many friends in 
and out of the army. 

General Beale's letter reads: 

In the heat of a great popular excitement caused by the 
loss of a most useful and exemplary officer, it is very doubt- 
ful if a fair judgment can be had in relation to the causes 
which have produced the event we all deplore. General 
Canby had served his country with such efficient zeal in two 
great wars, and was possessed of so many of the virtues 
which attached him to the community, that the intelligence 
of his death was received as a shock by the whole people of 
the United States. Perhaps there was not in the entire army 
a man whose public and private character stood so high, or 
who was more generally and justly beloved, and the manner 
of his death has added to the public grief a sentiment of 
bitterness toward the Indians which it seems nothing but 
their extermination will satisfy. With but few exceptions 
the press of the country is eagerly demanding blood for blood. 



196 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Let us pause for a moment before committing ourselves to 
a policy more savage and remorseless than that of the Mo- 
docs whom we propose to smite hip and thigh. Let us ask 
ourselves if we are not reaping what we have sown, and if 
the treachery to which the gallant and lamented Canby fell 
a victim is not the repetition of a lesson which we ourselves 
have taught these apt scholars, the Indians? Are we to 
think ourselves blameless when we recall the Chivington 
massacre? In that affair the Indians were invited to coun- 
cil under flags of truce, and the rites of hospitality, sacred 
even among the Bedouins of the desert, were violated as 
well as all military honor, for these poor wretches, while 
eating the sacred bread and salt, were ruthlessly fallen upon 
and slaughtered to the last man. The Piegan massacre 
was another affair in which we industriously taught the 
uncultivated savages the value of our pledges; and if we 
are correctly informed the very beginning of the Modoc 
war was an attempt while in the act of council to which 
they had been invited to make Captain Jack and two others 
prisoners. As to the bloody character of Indian warfare, 
as far as we can see, it is carried on by us with about the 
same zeal. We read of a sergeant in the service of the 
United States who in the late attack on the Modocs "took 
the scalp of Scar-face Charley who was found wounded in 
the lava beds." And if we desire to feel very good and 
free from barbarism we have only to read what comes to us 
side by side with news from the Modocs of the humane 
and civilized treatment we are meting out to our brothers 
in Louisiana, who differ from us on political questions; or 
recall the massacre and robbery and mutilation of unoffend- 
ing Chinese, which was committed in broad daylight by 
American citizens in California a year or so ago. 

The Modoc Indians are fighting for a right to live where 
God created them. The whole testimony of their neighbors 
when the war against them was first talked about, is to the 
effect that they were intelligent and inoflEensive; and we 



Indian Affairs 197 

have exasperated them by insisting on our right, which 
they do not see, to remove them to a distant and unknown 
country. Having been taught by us a violation of flags of 
truce, they have followed our example, and unhappily a 
noble victim to our teaching of falsehood and crime is the 
result; whereupon there goes out a cry of extermination 
throughout the land. 

We enter our protest against this course, and we ask for 
justice and a calmer consideration by the public, of the 
Indian affairs of our country. We cannot restore the good 
men who have been killed, by an indiscriminate slaughter 
of all the tribe of the Modocs ; and it does not become a 
Christian people to hunt to death the poor remnant of 
those from whom we have already taken the broad acres of 
thirty-seven states of this Union. 



CHAPTER XI 
The Forgotten Camel Corps 

Transportation Problems of the Fifties — To Provision 
Army Posts in Southwest, Beale Suggests Camel Train 
to the War Department — Enthusiastic Reception of 
the Novel Idea by Secretary Jefferson Davis — David 
Dixon Porter Sent to Ttmis and Syria to Secure the 
Camels — Camel Corps in the Scinde Campaign — 
Beale's Report to the War Department of his Camel 
Journey from San Antonio to El Paso — San Francisco 
Papers Enthusiastic over the New Beast of Burden — 
Davis Resigns from the War Department and the 
Camels are Neglected — Beale Herds the Survivors on 
his Ranch — A Camel Tandem — Value of Beale's 
Journals to Future Historians of the Southwestern and 
Pacific States. 

IN 1854 the War Department had its hands 
quite full in endeavoring to solve the difficult 
problem of army transportation to the re- 
mote 'stations of the newly acquired territory in the 
Southwest. This vast region, added to our pos- 
sessions by the Mexican War and the subsequent 
purchase, was chiefly peopled by Indians and Mexi- 
cans who were held in check with much difficulty 

and no little danger by a few scattered army posts. 

198 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 199 

To furnish the desired transportation facilities 
all manner of plans and agencies were proposed. 
When Beale presented himself at the Department 
with his suggestion of a camel corps it was regarded 
as quixotic it is true, but at all events as having as 
much substance as a relayed line of balloons which 
was at this time warmly advocated for the same 
purpose. 

Beale naturally did not pretend that he had 
enjoyed any personal experience with camels as 
beasts of burden but he simply overwhelmed the 
Department with excerpts and citations from books 
of travel in Asia and Africa all going to show the 
great usefulness of the "Ship of the Desert," in des- 
ert places. In after years General Beale told his son 
that the idea came to him once when he was, proba- 
bly the first white man who ever did so, exploring 
Death Valley' with Kit Carson. He never trav- 
elled so light but what there was at least one good 
book in his pack. On this occasion it chanced to be 
Abbe Hue's Travels in China and Tartary. Read- 
ing this book, Beale was convinced that by the 
introduction of camels the great desert of Arizona 
could be robbed of half its terrors. Kit Carson 

' It is characteristic of Beale that not a line concerning this adventur- 
ous trip is to be found in his papers and diaries. The Death Valley 
journey was but one of a series of systematic explorations which he 
made, whenever opportunity presented and generally in the company of 
Carson, for the purpose of examining all the passes from the then bar- 
ren plains of Arizona mto the Eden of California. The moment Beale 
had satisfied himself that Death Valley was not the path of empire 
which he sought, he drew a line through that route and went on to 
the exploration of others which seemed more promising. 



200 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

seems to have remained sceptical but on his return 
to Washington Beale was so fortunate as to find 
a fellow-enthusiast in the person of Jefferson Davis 
who had recently entered the cabinet as Secretary 
of War. 

Finding such an important person as the Sec- 
retary of War in a receptive mood, Beale lost 
no time in setting about the preliminary step of 
"catching the camels." Mr. Davis and Beale 
were successful in infusing the Navy Department 
with some of their enthusiasm, the store ship 
Supply was soon fitted out for Camel-Land and 
Beale induced his friend and kinsman, David 
Dixon Porter, who was later to win imperishable 
laurels in the Civil War, to apply for the command. 

In May, 1855, Porter sailed for Tunis. Neither 
he nor any man of his command had ever seen a 
camel, outside of a circus, and he wisely decided to 
go slowly and experiment at first on a small scale. 
In Tunis he purchased two camels and shipped 
them for the purpose of studying their habits before 
the entire herd was taken in tow or rather on 
board. In October the Supply arrived at Constan- 
tinople and from here Porter visited the Crimea 
and saw something of the campaign in progress. 
While he went at it with his characteristic thorough- 
ness, hitherto the camel-mission had appealed to 
Porter's well-known sense of humor rather than to 
any belief in its utility. In the Crimea, however, 
he met several English officers who had served with 
General Napier in the Scinde campaign. They 




00 



2 s 

P^ 2 

C/3 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 201 

told him of the valuable services which the camel 
corps, one thousand men mounted on five hundred 
dromedaries had rendered, and Porter immediately 
set sail for Alexandria and Smyrna where thirty- 
three camels were carefully and prayerfiilly pur- 
chased. With this strange deck cargo Porter 
arrived off Indianola, Texas, in April, 1856, and 
only one of his ungainly passengers had died. 
Porter was immediately sent back to Asia Minor 
and in the simimer of 1856 arrived off the mouth 
of the Mississippi with forty-four more very 
sea-sick camels. 

General Beale, now commanding the first and 
last camel corps ever organized on the American 
Continent, was from the very first enthusiastic in 
his praise of the desert ships. He assured all who 
addressed him on the subject, and it should be 
remembered that popiilar interest was almost as 
generally excited by this new method of transpor- 
tation as it is interested in aviation to-day, that the 
camel was to be the pack animal of the immediate 
future, on the American as well as the African and 
Asian deserts. To a friend. General Beale wrote 
upon his arrival in El Paso in Jiily, 1857: "When 
exactly the right breed is at our disposal and when 
one or two Turks or Arabs to the manner bom have 
been induced to remain long enough to familiarize 
our people with the habits of the camels, complete 
success will undoubtedly be attained." 

Writing from El Paso on July 24, 1857, General 
Beale gives the following official accoimt of his ex- 



202 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

traordinary journey, which promised to be epoch- 
making, to the Hon. J. B. Floyd, Secretary of War. 

Sir: I have the honor to report my arrival at this place 
with the expedition under my command. Thus far we have 
progressed rapidly and without a single day's delay since 
leaving San Antonio. 

It gives me great pleasure to report the entire success 
of the expedition with the camels so far as I have tried it. 
Laboring under all the disadvantages arising out of the 
fact that we have not one single man who knows anything 
whatever of camels or how to pack them, we have never- 
theless arrived here without an accident and although we 
have used the camels every day with heavy packs, have fewer 
sore backs and disabled ones by far than would have been 
the case travelling with pack mules. On starting I packed 
nearly seven hundred pounds on each camel, which I fear 
was too heavy a burden for the commencement of so long 
a journey, they, however packed it daily until that weight 
was reduced by our diurnal use of it as forage for our 
mules. 

I trust they may stand the remainder of the journey as 
well as they have thus far and I see no reason whatever to 
doubt it. If they should, the experiment of their usefulness 
is demonstrated fully, and it is to be hoped a larger number 
will be imported. For Indian scouts with infantry com- 
panies in countries as badly supplied with water as Texas 
and New Mexico, they would prove an invaluable aid though 
those we have with us are not the most valuable kind for 
burden being all females with three exceptions. 

The regular burden camel would make the same journey 
we have made and in the same time with twelve hundred 
pounds as easily as these with half the weight. I desire to 
call your attention particularly to the fact that they live and 
keep on food which the mules reject and which grows in the 
greatest luxuriance in the most barren of our American 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 203 

deserts, namely, the greasewood, a small bitter bush, useless 
for any purpose I have been able to discover except as being 
a valuable food for the camels. Although they eat grass 
when staked out to it, if left to themselves they will 
instantly leave the best gramma and browse greedily on 
bushes of any kind whatever in preference. 

I was told by the highest authority on leaving San An- 
tonio that not one of them would ever see El Paso; that 
they would give out on the way. This prediction has not 
been verified by fact. The road from here to San Antonio 
is certainly the most terribly trying on unshod feet I have 
ever seen. This is so true that I have not an unshod 
work mule or horse that is not lame. With the camels I 
have not to this time a single tender-footed animal. I 
attribute this not so much to the spongy natured, gutta 
percha-like substance which forms their feet, as to the 
singular regularity and perpendicular motion with 
which the foot is raised and put down. In horses 
and mules there is always more or less of a slip and 
shuffle, but the camel lifts his foot clearly and per- 
pendicularly'- from the ground, extends the leg and replaces 
it squarely and without the least shuffle or motion to 
create friction. 

They are the most docile, patient and easily managed 
creatures in the world and infinitely more easily worked 
than mules. From personal observation of the camels I 
would rather undertake the management of twenty of 
them than of five mules. In fact the camel gives no 
trouble whatever. Kneeling down to receive his load it 
may be put on without hurry at the convenience of the 
master and the process of packing is infinitely easier than 
mule packing. These animals remain quietly on their 
knees until loaded. Contrast the lassoing, the blinding, 
the saddling, the pulling and hauling of ropes, the adjust- 
ment of the pack on an animal like the mule, flying around 
in all directions, to say nothing of a broken limb received 



204 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

from one of its numerous kicks, with the patient quiet of 
the camel kneeling for its load. 

We had them on this journey sometimes for twenty-six 
hours without water exposed to a great degree of heat, the 
mercury standing at one hundred and four degrees and 
when they came to water they seemed to be almost indiffer- 
ent to it. Not all drank and those that did, not with the 
famished eagerness of other animals when deprived of 
water for the same length of time. 

If the Department intends carrying their importation of 
the camels further, after this present experiment has been 
more fully tested, and I have reported my success or the 
want of it, I would strongly recommend a new saddle to be 
prepared for them, to replace the present cltunsy contriv- 
ance, and also that a corps of Mexicans be employed in 
herding and using them. The Americans of the class who 
seek such employment are totally unfit for it, being for the 
most part harsh, cruel and impatient with animals entrusted 
to their care. 'The Greeks and Turks who are with us 
know no more of camels than any American living in New 
York knows of buffalo. 

The animal is used in their own country but they know 
nothing about it. My only object in employing them at 
the high rate they are paid was that they, knowing the 
harmless character of the camel, would give confidence to 
the others employed in the management of an animal which, 
with all its gentleness, has a most ferocious-looking set of 
teeth which it displays with a roar rivalling that of the 
royal Bengal tiger. The two Turks, Hassan and SuHman, 
who really did know all about camels, and who were the 
only ones that did that I could discover, refused to accom- 
pany the expedition, being desirous of returning home to 
their own country. 

We are getting on rapidly and very pleasantly and I 
hope to be in Washington again on Christmas Day, 
etc. 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 205 

There are available few contemporaneous ac- 
counts of how the first and the last American 
camel corps looked to the man in the street or the 
scout on the trail. The camels had warm friends 
and partisans, the chief of whom was easily General 
Beale, and they had bitter and tireless enemies, 
many of whom, it was openly charged, were not 
wholly disconnected with the incipient mule trust 
then growing up in Missouri. On this account 
we are all the more grateftd for the following 
unpartisan though unsigned statement of things 
seen which, dated Los Angeles, January 21, 1858, 
appeared in several of the San Francisco papers 
and was widely copied throughout the country. 

Gen. Beale and about fourteen camels stalked into town 
last Friday week and gave our streets quite an Oriental 
aspect. It looks oddly enough to see, outside of a menag- 
erie, a herd of huge ungainly awkward but docile animals 
move about in our midst with people riding them like 
horses and bringing up weird and far-off associations to the 
Eastern traveller, whether by book or otherwise, of the 
lands of the mosque, crescent or ttu*ban, of the pilgrim 
mufti and dervish with visions of the great shrines of the 
world, Mecca and Jerusalem, and the toiling throngs that 
have for centuries wended thither, of the burning sands of 
Arabia and Sahara where the desert is boundless as the 
ocean and the camel is the ship thereof. 

These camels under charge of Gen. Bea.e are all grown 
and serviceable and most of them are well broken to the sad- 
dle and are very gentle. All belong to the one hump species 
except one which is a cross between the one and the two 
hump species. This fellow is much larger and more power- 
ful than either sire or dam. He is a grizzly-looking hybrid, 



2o6 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

a camel-mule of colossal proportions. These animals are 
admirably adapted to the travel across our continent and 
their introduction was a brilliant idea the result of which is 
beginning most happily. At first Gen. Beale thought the 
animals were going to fail, they appeared likely to give out, 
their backs got sore, but he resolved to know whether they 
would do or not. He loaded them heavily with provisions, 
which they were soon able to carry with ease, and thence 
came through to Fort Tejon, living upon bushes, prickly 
pears and whatever they could pick up on the route. 
They went without water from six to ten days and even 
packed it a long distance for the mules, when crossing the 
deserts. They were found capable of packing one thousand 
pounds weight apiece and of travelling with their load from 
thirty to forty miles per day all the while finding their own 
feed over an almost barren country. Their drivers say 
they will get fat where a jackass would starve to death. 
The "mule" as they call the cross between the camel and 
the dromedary will pack twenty-two hundred pounds. 

The animals are now on their return to the Colorado 
River for the purpose of carrying provisions to Gen. Beale 
and his military escort who, it is conjectured, will penetrate 
from thence as far as possible into the Mormon country. 
Afterwards Gen. Beale will return by the new wagon route 
that he has lately surveyed to verify it and so on to Wash- 
ington. He is expected to reach the Capital before the 
first of March in order to lay his report before Congress. 

When Mr. Davis left the War Department the 
camels lost a most influential friend, although Gen- 
eral Beale remained their most enthusiastic admirer 
to the end. As is shown in the foregoing reports, 
the camels gave an excellent account of themselves 
on even the most trying journeys but the ordinary 
teamsters and mule-drivers were afraid of them and 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 207 

in the end this silent opposition prevailed. Many- 
camels were allowed to escape from the army posts 
where they were herded and not a few died from 
neglect. Some of the camels that were allowed to 
regain their liberty seem to have increased and mul- 
tiplied, and for years they wandered over the plains 
of Arizona and New Mexico where they were 
a terrifying object to man and beast, to all 
Indians and whites who had not enjoyed Oriental 
experiences. 

The remnant of the camels were finally con- 
demned by an army board as unsuitable for trans- 
portation and sold under the hammer. General 
Beale, loyal to the end, bought them and marched 
them off to Tejon where they had free quarters as 
long as they lived. One of Truxtim Beale's 
earliest experiences, which any boy might envy, 
was in driving with his father from Tejon to Los 
Angeles, a distance of one himdred miles, in a sulky 
behind a tandem team of camels with whom Gen- 
eral Beale, when necessary, would carry on conver- 
sation in Syrian which he had with characteristic 
energy taught himself for this purpose. 

During the years 1 854-5 ^^^ 1 856 General Beale 
was fully occupied with the supervision and con- 
trol of Indian affairs, in California, Nevada, and 
at the Capital and it is apparent from his journals 
that the battles he was compelled to fight in 
Washington were less to his liking than the open 
hostility which he had so often met with on the 
banks of the Colorado. Beale's road-breaking and 



2o8 Edward Fitzeerald Beale 



t) 



building operations, never entirely suspended, were 
resumed vigorously, thanks to a substantial appro- 
priation by Congress, early in 1857 and were 
continued almost without interruption until the 
outbreak of the Civil War, or rather until the inau- 
guration of President Lincoln by whom Beale was 
immediately appointed Surveyor-General of Cali- 
fornia. 

The journey from Fort Defiance to the Colorado 
River to survey the proposed routes of the wagon 
road was made during the summer of 1857 and the 
winter of 1857-8. General Beale's report and log 
of land travel was, at the suggestion of the Secretary 
of War, ordered printed during the first session of 
the 35th Congress and it is entombed in the 
national archives of that year as Executive Docu- 
ment No. 124. 

The report upon the wagon road projected from 
Fort. Smith, Arkansas, to the Colorado and the 
narrative of the joiuney which was undertaken 
during the winter of 1858-9 was ordered printed 
by the 36th Congress during its first session and 
bears the caption Executive Document No. 42. 

These interesting Journals did not receive the 
close attention or the just appreciation which they 
deserved. Beale's services were, it is true, highly 
considered and no step relating to the Pacific Coast 
was taken or even considered in Washington with- 
out consulting him, but the details of his adventur- 
ous travels were little known and Beale was the 
last man in the world to push his exploits into 



The Forgotten Camel Corps 209 

prominence. The roads were built, however, in 
great part, and the new commonwealths on the 
Pacific were bound to the older States by a physical 
tie which the shock of the impending conflict when 
it came could not snap. The roads were built and 
the Pacific Coast was saved to the Union, but the 
details and the thrilling incidents of the great task 
so quietly accomplished were little noticed and soon 
forgotten. 

In a volume of limited scope such as the present, 
it is impossible to reproduce many more pages 
of General Beale's graphic Journals and T shall 
not venture to condense them. I shall, however, 
print in full General Beale's covering despatches to 
the War Department in which, in a few words, he 
tells of the objects and of the results of his journeys, 
and I shall also reproduce a few detached entries 
from the Journals themselves, sufficient, I hope, to 
demonstrate that in the rarely turned and never 
reprinted pages of these official reports is to be 
found a wealth of picturesque material indispen- 
sable to the understanding of the Western move- 
ment and the early days in California. When a 
definitive history of the Southwest territory and 
the Central Plains, out of which so many States 
have been carved, is written, the pages of General 
Beale's Journals will be found, I believe, to supply 
the indispensable data as well as the glowing pic- 
tures of the primitive life which Captain John 
Smith's Narrative offers to the historian of the Old 
Dominion, which the Diary of Bradford makes 



210 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

accessible to the modem writer on the Massachu- 
setts Bay settlements, and which the Journals of 
Bonneville, of Lewis, and of Clark reveal to the 
historian of those States "where rolls the Oregon." 



CHAPTER XII 

The Wagon Road Survey from Fort Defiance 
TO California 

General Beale's Report to the Secretary of War — From 
Zuni to the Banks of the Little Colorado — Praise of 
the Camels, Especially their Swimming — Extracts 
from Beale's Journal — Howard's Spring, Famous for 
Indian Massacres — Water Shortage — Mount Buchanan 
and Mount Benton — Indian Adventure of a Geologist 
— Captured Indians Retained as Guides to the Colo- 
rado — First Sight of the Sierra Nevada — Winter at 
Fort Tejon — The Return Journey — First Steamer on 
the Colorado — Last Entry in the Journal — "We have 
Tested the Value of the Camel, Marked a new Road to 
the Pacific, and Travelled Four Thousand Miles. " 

GENERAL BEALE'S report to the Secretary 
of War on his explorations for a wagon 
road from Fort Defiance, in New Mexico, 
to the western borders of California, communi- 
cated to Congress, in answer to a resolution of the 
Senate, reads as follows : 

Colorado River, California, October i8, 1857. 

Sir: 

I have the honor to report my arrival in California, after 
a journey of forty-eight days. It gives me pleasure to 



212 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

inform you that we have met with the most complete 
success in our exploration for a wagon road from Fort 
Defiance, New Mexico, to this State. 

In a hurried letter of this kind, it is not possible that I 
should give you much of the detail of our exploration. 
Leaving that for my daily journal to disclose, I shall 
endeavor briefly to give you an idea of the character of the 
country, as well as the advantages of the road I have 
explored. 

Leaving Zuni, the point from which the road should 
properly start, we found the country easy and rolling and 
bearing good grass, with water at convenient intervals, 
until our arrival at the banks of the Little Colorado. This 
I found a fine stream, the bottom of which is wide and 
fertile, filled with excellent grass, and the banks of the 
stream itself fringed with a heavy growth of cotton wood. 
The whole region through which it runs is of a character 
to make it most valuable to the agriculturist and grazier. 
After following this stream for several days, and fording it 
with our wagons without difficulty, we left it and pursued 
our course westward to San Francisco Mountain. The 
country at the foot of that mountain (a gradually ascending 
plain) although somewhat rocky, in places was covered 
with the finest gramma-grass, with timber sufficient for 
fuel, and water in abundance. 

From this point, twenty miles from the base of the moun- 
tain, until we commenced the descent of its western slope, 
the country is undulating, with frequent extensive level 
plateaus, well watered with springs, and is by far the most 
beautiful region I ever remember to have seen in any portion 
of the world. A vast forest of gigantic pine, intersected 
frequently by extensive open glades, sprinkled all over with 
mountain meadows and wide savannahs, filled with the 
richest grasses, was traversed by our party for many 
successive days. 

From the western slope to the country dividing the head 



The Wagon Road Survey 213 

of Bill Williams' fork from the Colorado River, the only 
change is in the growth of the timber, cedar of the largest 
size, for the most part, taking the place of pine; but the 
character of the soil remains unchanged, and is of the same 
fertile nature, bearing in all parts the richest gramma-grass. 

From the divide of Bill WilHams to the Colorado the 
country assumes a more barren aspect, and becomes a 
desert on the banks of the river, excepting in the bottom 
lands, for a few miles in width on either side. Arrived at 
the river, I crossed the wagons and people without difficulty. 
At the point of our crossing I found it to be about 200 
yards wide, a smooth surface as far as the eye could reach 
up and down, unobstructed by bars or rocks, flowing at the 
rate of three miles an hour, 19 feet in depth in mid-channel, 
apparently perfectly navigable for steamers of largest size. 
Questioning the Indians closely, I derived from them satis- 
factory information that it bore the same character the 
entire distance from that place to Fort Yuma, some 200 
miles below. 

You have thus, sir, in a few words, a short account of our 
journey on the road we were sent to explore. Of its advan- 
tages, in detail, I have not time in this letter to speak, 
except in general terms. I enumerate them. 

It is the shortest from our western frontier by 300 miles, 
being nearly directly west. It is the most level: our 
wagons only double-teaming once in the entire distance, 
and that at a short hill, and over a surface heretofore 
unbroken by wheels or trail of any kind. It is well watered : 
our greatest distance without water at any time being 
twenty miles. It is well timbered, and in many places the 
growth is far beyond that of any part of the world I have 
ever seen. It is temperate in climate, passing for the most 
part over an elevated region. It is salubrious: not one of 
our party requiring the shghtest medical attendance from 
the time of our leaving to our arrival. It is well grassed: 
my command never having made a bad grass camp during 



214 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the entire distance until near the Colorado. It crosses the 
great desert (which must be crossed by any road to Califor- 
nia) at its narrowest point. It passes through a country 
abounding in game, and but little infested with Indians. 

On the entire road, until our arrival at the Mohave vil- 
lages, we did not see, in all, over a dozen Indians, and those 
of a timid and inoffensive character. At the point of the 
crossing of the Colorado, grain, vegetables, and breadstuffs 
may be obtained in any quantity from the Indians, who 
cultivate extensively, though rudely, the fertile bottom 
lands of the Colorado. It is passable alike in winter and 
summer. These are the advantages which I claim for the 
road which we have discovered, marked, and explored, 
from New Mexico to this State. 

I shall mention, then, only one important fact, that it 
leaves to the option of the emigrant the choice of entering 
California either at the city of Los Angeles, by the regularly 
travelled road, in the most fertile part of the southern 
portion of the State, or of turning off from that river, by an 
easy road, frequently travelled, and coming into the head 
of the great Tulare Valley, and by a good road through 
settlements all the way, extending to Stockton, Sacramento, 
and the more northern parts of the State. 

Our work, although arduous, has been rendered pleasant 
by the beautiful character of the country through which we 
have passed, and the salubrious nature of the climate; and, 
although the double duty of exploring and marking the 
road has fallen upon us, we have passed through it without 
an accident of any kind whatever. 

An important part in all of our operations has been acted 
by the camels. Without the aid of this noble and useful 
brute, many hardships which we have been spared would 
have fallen to our lot; and our admiration for them has 
increased day by day, as some new hardship, endured 
patiently, more fully developed their entire adaptation and 
usefulness in the exploration of the wilderness. At times 




00 



o 

CO 
0) 



O I-) 



>• o 



C/3 



The Wagon Road Survey 215 

I have thought it impossible they could stand the test to 
which they have been put, but they seem to have risen 
equal to every trail and to have come off of every explora- 
tion with as much strength as before starting. Unsupported 
by the testimony of every man of my party, I should be 
unwilling to state all that I have seen them do. Starting 
with a full determination that the experiment should be no 
half-way one, I have subjected them to trials which no 
other animal could possibly have endured; and yet I have 
arrived here not only without the loss of a camel, but they 
are admitted by those who saw them in Texas to be in as 
good condition to-day as when we left San Antonio. 

In all our lateral explorations, they have carried water 
sometimes for more than a week for the mules used by the 
men, themselves never receiving even a bucketful to one of 
them. They have traversed patiently, with heavy packs, 
on these explorations, countries covered with sharpest 
volcanic rock, and yet their feet, to this hour, have evinced 
no symptom of tenderness or injury. With heavy packs, 
they have crossed mountains, ascended and descended 
precipitous places where an unladen mule found it difficult 
to pass, even with the assistance of the rider dismounted, 
and carefully picking its way. I think it would be within 
bounds to say, that, in these various lateral explorations, 
they have traversed nearly double the distance passed over 
by our mules and wagons. 

Leaving home with all the prejudice invariably attaching 
to untried experiments, and with many in our camp opposed 
to their use, and looking forward confidently to their 
failure, I believe at this time I may speak for every man in 
our party, when I say there is not one of them who would 
not prefer the most indifferent of our camels to four of our 
best mules; and I look forward, hopefully, to the time when 
they will be in general use in all parts of our country. 

Reading the accounts of travellers who had used them a 
great deal in the East, and who, I presumed, were entirely 



21 6 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

acquainted with their habits and powers, I was rendered 
extremely anxious on the subject of their swimming; fore- 
seeing that, however useful they might be as beasts of 
burden in inhabited parts of the country, their usefulness 
would be impaired, if not entirely lost, to those who desired 
to use them where ferry boats and other such conveniences 
did not exist. 

The enterprising priest, Father Hue, whose travels have 
lately been published, in speaking of his detention at the 
Yellow River, in China, because of the impossibility of 
crossing the camels, concludes by saying "for this animal 
cannot swim" ; hence my great anxiety for the entire success 
of this experiment with camels was very much increased 
on my arrival at the Colorado River. All my pleasure in 
looking upon this noble stream, and all the satisfaction I 
derived in the reflection of a successful journey accom- 
plished, was clouded by this doubt. However, the effort 
was to be made, and after having resolved in my own mind 
what to do in the event of failure, I determined to test the 
truth of the statements which I had seen in relation to that 
fact. The first camel brought down to the river's edge 
refused to take the water. Anxious, but not discouraged, 
I ordered another one to be brought, one of our largest and 
finest ; and only those who have felt so much anxiety for the 
success of an experiment can imagine my relief on seeing it 
take to the water, and swim boldly across the rapidly flowing 
river. We then tied them, each one to the saddle of another, 
and without the slightest difficulty, in a short time swam 
them all to the opposite side in gangs, five in a gang; to my 
delight, they not only swam with ease, but with apparently 
more strength than horses or mules. One of them, heading 
up stream, swam a considerable distance against the 
current, and all landed in safety on the other side. 

On reaching the settlements of California, I have con- 
cluded to despatch Lieutenant Thorbum, U. S. Navy, 
immediately to Washington with the notes and astronomi- 



The Wagon Road Survey 217 

cal observations, in order that he may prepare a map of our 
route. 

In closing this report, I desire to say a word, in conclusion, 
of the officer who bears it. His reputation in his own ser- 
vice wotdd render unnecessary any commendations of mine, 
but the department of which you are the head, being 
unacquainted with his merits, I desire to make them known 
to you. He has evinced on this journey an activity, zeal, 
intelHgence, and courage, rarely to be found combined in 
any one man, and has been to me, not only a most able 
assistant, but an agreeable companion throughout the entire 
exploration ; and I ask as an especial favor from the depart- 
ment, if the work is to be continued, that he be not detached 
from his present duty. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. F. Beale, 
Superintendent. 

Hon. John B. Floyd, 

Secretary of War, 
Washington, D. C. 

The following are a few extracts from Beale's 
Journal while engaged on the wagon road survey 
which is outlined in the above report. The Journal 
was also ordered printed by resolution of the 
Senate. 

July 7, 1857. We started at 4:30 A.M., and trav- 
elled twelve miles, when we encamped for breakfast. 
Our crossing-place was called Cedar Bluffs. The 
grass is very fine and T^ater abundant in holes 
filled by the late rain. We were passed on the 
road this morning by the monthly El Paso mail, 
on its way up, by which I received, forwarded by 



2i8 Edward Fitzeerald Beale 



& 



some of my friends at San Antonio, a box about 
two feet square, for which the moderate charge of 
twenty dollars was made! The dangers of this 
road, however, justified any price for such matters. 
Scarcely a mile of it but has its story of Indian 
murder and plunder; in fact, from El Paso to San 
Antonio is but one long battle-ground — a surprise 
here, robbery of animals there. Every spring and 
watering-place has its history or anecdote con- 
nected with Indian violence and bloodshed. The 
country through which we have travelled to-day 
is entirely destitute of timber, except the mesquite 
bush, which grows almost everywhere in Texas. 
The road though rolling is excellent. 

July 8. Up at half -past two and off at daybreak 
without breakfast. We travelled eleven miles to 
Howard's Spring, where we stopped to breakfast 
and water the animals. This place seems to have 
been famous for Indian surprises. Near it we 
passed the graves of seven who had been killed 
by the savages, and still nearer, within a himdred 
yards or so, the bones of a sergeant, and some two 
or three dragoons who were here killed by them. 
The bodies had apparently been disinterred by 
animals, and the ghastly remains of the poor fel- 
lows who had perished there were scattered on the 
ground. Captain Lee (U. S. Army) gave us the 
history of the fight, which occurred some months 
ago. 

Howard's Spring is a small hole containing ap- 
parently about a quarter of a barrel of water, but 



The Wagon Road Survey 219 

is in reality inexhaustible. It is directly under a 
bluff of rock in the bed of a dry creek, and to get at 
the water it is necessary to descend about eight 
feet by rude steps cut in the rock ; the water has to 
be passed up in buckets, and the animals watered 
from them. There is but little grass here, and no 
timber but greasewood and mesquite, and not 
much of that; a few stunted cedars that grow 
around the bluff of the spring are neither large 
enough for shade or fuel. 

The rain has brought the grass forward wonder- 
fully, and with it an abundance of beautiful flowers, 
so that the prairie for the last few days has been 
filled with perfume and richly colored flowers, 
which would have been no disgrace to the most 
costly hothouse. The whole of the country is 
vastly improved by these grateful showers, which 
have clothed it everywhere with verdure, and 
filled the air with fragrance. 

Of large game we have seen but little, but 
turkeys and partridges aboimd in great nimibers; 
in fact, the whistle of "Bob White" is with us all 
the time. 

The camels came into camp with us. We find 
one great trouble, and the only one, in managing 
them is that we know nothing about the method 
of packing them, and have it all to learn. In conse- 
quence of our want of knowledge in this particular, 
we have several with sore backs, which, however, I 
am glad to observe, heal much more rapidly 
than similar abrasures on the backs of horses or 



220 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

mules. As soon as we discover one to be getting 
sore, it is immediately freed of its burden, and in 
a day or two is ready for service again. They 
seem almost entirely indifferent to the best grass, 
and to prefer any kind of bush to it. To-day we 
found another food they seem particularly to relish, 
the name of which we do not know. The wild 
grape-vine is a great favorite with them, and as 
it grows plentifully, they will fare well on it. It 
seems that they Hke most the herbs and boughs of 
bitter bushes, which all other animals reject. The 
more I see of them the more interested in them I 
become, and the more I am convinced of their 
usefulness. Their perfect docility and patience 
under difficulties render them invaluable, and my 
only regret at present is that I have not double the 
number. 

After remaining a few hours at Howard's Spring 
we resumed our march, and soon regained the 
plain. At the crest of the hill, as we came upon 
the level land again, we found a new-made grave, 
probably another added to the long list of 
Indian victims with which the entire trail is 
mied. 

We encamped without water on the open prairie ; 
grass good, but no timber whatever. 

This evening many of our party have seen 
Indians, but for me, "Ah, sinner that T am, I was 
not permitted to witness so glorious a sight." 
encourage the young men, however, in the belief 
that deer, bushes, etc., which they have mistaken 



The Wagon Road Survey 221 

for Indians, are all veritable Comanches, as it 
makes them watchful on guard at night. 

Sept. 18. — Camp 17. . . . We leave here to-day 
at noon to explore this great plain and shall 
endeavor to go as nearly west as possible to the 
Colorado Grande. I should suppose this plain to 
be, at its widest part, from eighty to one hundred 
miles in width. To our left, that is to the south 
and southwest, a range of mountains seems to 
terminate in long cape-like mesas which extend 
into the plain we are traversing. Ahead the view 
is unbounded, only the blue points of a mountain 
appearing far in the distance. The weather is 
clear and warm, making the uncertainty of water 
ahead rather unpleasant. 

The slopes of the mesas on our left seem to be 
covered with a heavy growth of pine timber. The 
nearest is about ten miles south of us. Leaving 
our supper camp at dark we travelled by night, 
and the night dark, for ten miles across the country 
to the northwest, and so level was the siu*face that 
not a wagon stopped for a moment. Going ahead 
with two or three of my party I made fires every 
three or four miles, as guides to the wagons, and 
such was the level character of the country that 
those behind me told me they could frequently see 
the flash of my match as I would light it to kindle 
the fire. In gathering greasewood bushes for one 
of these fires Thorbum picked up in his hand a 
rattlesnake, but fortimately the night was so cool 
that, I presume, the reptile was torpid with cold. 



222 Edward Fitzgrerald Beale 



t>' 



so that when the fire blazed up I shot him with 
my pistol where Thorbum had dropped him. 

Resuming our march at sunrise we travelled 
twelve miles, the country assuming a slightly more 
rolling character as we advanced. We crossed 
many broad and well-beaten Indian trails all going 
to the southwest and northeast but none toward 
the direction we were travelling. Our guide, how- 
ever, still retained his confident air and assured me 
there was no doubt of our finding water a short 
distance beyond. 

A half mile further and he came back to tell that 
the distant mountain, towards which our course 
was directed, was not the one he thought and that 
he was completely lost. I ought to have killed 
him there but did not. 

We were now thirty-two miles from water and 
in a country entirely imknown. Encamping at 
once, I despatched the two dromedaries to the 
east, while, with a few men on our strongest horses, 
I started to the west. On our line we travelled 
through some low hills and following an Indian 
trail came suddenly upon a most wonderful sight. 
This was a chasm in the earth or apparently a 
split in the very centre of a range of hills from the 
top to the bottom. 

Seeing that the Indians had descended I deter- 
mined to try it, so picking out the least precipitous 
part and scrambling down and leading oirr horses 
and zigzagging, we at last reached the bottom. 
Indian signs were abundant in the caves on either 



The Wagon Road Survey 223 

side and a trail led up the middle of the ravine. 
From appearances I should judge the Indians 
wintered here after gathering the pifion on the 
surrounding mountainsides. Finding no water 
or the appearance of any we turned our faces 
toward home. Arriving at camp I found the 
dromedary men had found a river (the little Color- 
ado, I presume) about sixteen or twenty miles off 
but very rough to approach. 

Our animals were now beginning to suffer very 
much, having been almost constantly at work for 
thirty-six hours without water; and one of the 
most painful sights I have ever witnessed was a 
group of them standing over a small barrel of 
water and trying to drink from the bung-hole, 
frantic with distress and eagerness to get at it. 
The camels seemed to view this proceeding with 
great contempt and kept quietly browsing on the 
grass and the bushes. . . . Hitching up the teams 
we commenced our retreat at dark and about three 
o'clock in the morning it was found necessary to 
turn the animals out and drive them to water. 

The moment they were released they started 
off in a gallop, for well they remembered the last 
water we had left and they did not cease galloping 
until they reached the creek. I arrived with 
Thorbum at seven in the morning, the camels were 
sent on in advance and shortly after our arrival 
here, although like the rest of us they had been 
on the road all night, they were started back with 
eight or ten barrels of water for the camp at the 



224 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

wagons. Six of the camels are worth half the 
mules we have though we have some good ones. 
My admiration for the camels increases daily with 
my experience of them. The harder the test they 
are put to the more fully they seem to justify all 
that can be said of them. 

October 9. — Camp 25. . . . Passing the point, 
our doubts were all set at rest most satisfactorily. 
The stream turned abruptly to the westward and in 
that direction a glorious view broke upon us. For 
sixty miles an immense plain extended to the west 
only bounded by a distant range of mountains 
in that direction, through which we thought we 
saw such great depressions as to make a passage 
easy. This we trust is the Colorado range. 
Directly west is a huge mountain which I called 
Moimt Buchanan and connected with it another 
which I called Mount Benton. Altogether the 
prospect is the finest we have had on the road. 

Many Indian signs are presented about our 
camp. A few hundred yards below is a rancheria 
deserted, likely, by its people on our approach. It 
probably contained some thirty or forty savages. 
. . . We came nearly ten miles to-day; six on a 
southwesterly course. The fresh Indian signs 
induce me to believe water may be found quite 
near us in the morning but we encamped too late 
this evening to look for it. 

October 10. — Camp 26. While waiting in camp 
for the mules which this morning had been 
sent up the creek to water, our geologist came into 



The Wagon Road Survey 225 

camp much excited to inform us that while en- 
gaged in cracking stones on the moimtainside, three 
Indians had crept up to his gun, a short distance 
from him, and after taking it had drawn their bows 
upon him and he was obliged to beat a rapid retreat 
to camp, which was fortunately not over half a 
mile from him. I immediately sent my three boys, 
May, Ham, and Joe, to look after the thieves and 
to bring them to camp. They did not succeed in 
finding them though they trailed them to the spot. 
Here they found shoe tracks an extraordinary 
distance apart, and of large size, coming directly 
toward camp; but as our geologist says he walked 
on his return these could not have been his, espe- 
cially as the toe had made deep impressions in the 
sand. On returning to camp the boys saw two 
Indians quite near who immediately fired their 
arrows at them. This was returned by double- 
barrelled guns and hearing this at camp, Mr. Thor- 
bum and I started at once. A few hundred yards 
from camp in the bottom of the valley we saw 
the Indians running and the boys hot foot after 
them, both parties firing as they ran. We imme- 
diately joined the chase which proved very good 
practice for a while but soon began to tell on the 
lungs. In a few minutes the mounted party joined 
us. I ordered the men by no means to kill the 
Indians but to take them alive. Directly opposite 
the camp is a dark red butte very rocky, high, and 
steep. Here we fairly ran them to earth near the 
top. The first caught was a boy apparently 



226 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

fifteen years of age; but where was the other? We 
had completely surrounded the conical peak of the 
hill and though a minute search had been made we 
had not found him. Still I knew he was not over 
fifty steps from me so we formed a complete cordon 
around the spot where he was last seen. At last 
one of the men looking at a greasewood bush not 
larger than an ordinary rosewood bush discovered 
him close to the root, lying apparently coiled 
around it and so completely concealed that even 
within six feet of him he could not be seen. He 
was dragged out, roped, and carried to camp. Here 
he was well fed and both of them clothed from 
head to foot. I shall use them as guides to the 
Colorado and then either take them on and bring 
them back next winter or allow them to return 
from the river. . . . 

In the morning as soon as it was light enough to 
see we were off again. Turning the point which 
makes out from the high peak, which I called Frank 
Murray's peak, we entered a wide gorge which 
seemed to cut the mountain far upward towards 
its centre. It was rough with stones, and over- 
grown in places with willow and rank weeds 
through which Indian trails with fresh tracks and 
other signs showed their immediate presence. We 
found a fine cold spring about three miles from the 
entrance to the pass, and pursuing our way soon 
came to a short but steep hill at the end of the 
gorge which seemed to be the summit of the pass. 
Ascending this the river lay below us. We had 



The Wagon Road Survey 227 

arrived at the end of our long journey, so far 
without an accident. Only those who have toiled 
so far, with life, reputation, everything staked upon 
the result, can imagine the feelings with which I 
looked down from the heights of this mountain 
upon the cotton woods and the shining surface of 
the river far below us. 

At a great distance to the northwest a snow- 
capped chain of mountains marked the Sierra 
Nevada, the mountains of my own State, and my 
heart warmed as I thought of the many friends 
beyond that distant chain who were looking anx- 
iously for my arrival and who would share with me 
the feelings of gratified pride with which the result 
of a successful expedition would be crowned. 

The expedition went on to Fort Tejon to rest the 
animals and to recruit the courage and the strength 
of the men. On January ist. General Beale began 
the eastward and homeward journey and on Jan- 
uary 23d, he reached the Colorado where, this time 
at least, a most surprising experience awaited him. 
We will describe it in his own words. 

"Shortly after leaving camp my clerk, F. E. Ker- 
lin, who, with two of my party had been despatched 
the day previous in order to have my boat ready 
for crossing, was seen returning. Various surmises 
were immediately started as to the cause and as 
soon as he was within speaking distance he was 
questioned eagerly for the news. He gave us a 



228 Edward Fitzoferald Beale 



£> 



joyftil surprise by the information that the steamer 
General Jesup, Captain Johnson, was at the cross- 
ing waiting to convey us to the opposite side. 
It is difficult to conceive the varied emotions with 
which this news was received. Here in a wild 
almost unknown coimtry, inhabited by savages, 
the great river of the West hitherto declared 
unnavigable had for the first time borne upon its 
bosom that emblem of civilization, a steamer. 
The enterprise of a private citizen had been 
rewarded by success for the future, was to lend its 
aid in the settlement of oiu- vast western territory. 
But alas! for the poor Indians living on its banks 
and rich meadow lands. The rapid current which 
washes its shores will hardly pass more rapidly 
away. The steam whistle of the General Jesup 
sounded the death knell of the river race. 

" In a few minutes after our arrival the steamer 
came alongside the bank and our party was trans- 
ported at once with all our baggage to the other 
side. We then swam the mules over and bidding 
Captain Johnson good-bye he was soon steaming 
down the river towards Fort Yuma three himdred 
and fifty miles below. I confess I felt jealous of 
his achievement and it is to be hoped the govern- 
ment will substantially reward the enterprising 
spirit which prompted a citizen at his own risk and 
at great hazard to undertake so perilous and uncer- 
tain an expedition. 

"I had brought the camels with me and as they 
stood on the bank surrounded by hundreds of 



The Wagon Road Survey 229 

unclad savages and mixed with these the dragoons 
of my escort, and the steamer slowly revolving 
her wheels preparatory to a start, it was a curious 
and interesting picture. 

"The camels I had placed in camp within a few 
hundred yards of the siunmit of the Sierra Nevada 
immediately on my arrival, for the sake of testing 
their capability of withstanding the cold and to 
this date they have lived in two or three feet of 
snow, fattening and thriving wonderfully all the 
while. Lately in a terrible snowstorm the wagon 
carrying provisions to the camp could proceed no 
further. The camels were immediately sent to 
the rescue and brought the load through snow and 
ice to camp, though the six strong mules of the 
team were imable to extricate the empty wagons." 

A month later General Beale was able to write in 
his Journal : "Here my labors end. The main road 
to Fort Defiance being intersected at this point by 
the road which I have explored and surveyed to 
Fort Tejon, California. A year in the wilderness 
ended! During this time I have conducted my 
party from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of the 
Pacific Ocean, and back again to the eastern ter- 
minus of the road, through a country for a great 
part entirely unknown, and inhabited by hostile 
Indians, without the loss of a man. I have tested 
the value of the camel, marked a new road to the 
Pacific, and travelled four thousand miles without 
an accident." 



CHAPTER XIII 
The Journey along the 35TH Parallel 

Beale's Official Report — Railway Surveys from Fort Smith, 
Arkansas, to the Colorado — Choteau's and the Valley 
of the Canadian — The Rio del Norte at Albuquerque — 
Advantages of this Route for Wagon or Railroads 
— Extracts from Beale's Journal — Inscription Rock — 
Breakfast of Wild Cat — A Visit to Zuni — Advice to the 
Chief — "A Merrie Jest of ye White Man and ye 
Indian" — Indian Rumors and a Treaty of Peace — 
Civil War and the Close of the Wagon Road Period 
— "Wanderer" Writes about It from Gum Springs to 
the Philadelphia Press — The Pacific Railroad as a 
Government Project — Santa Pe Traders — Praise of 
Beale as Pioneer and Road Builder. 

GENERAL BEALE'S official report to the 
Secretary of War on the results of his next 
journey, the survey from Fort Smith, 
Arkansas, to the Colorado, reads as follows : 

Chester, Pa., December 15, 1859. 
Sir: 

I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of my 
last expedition from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the Colorado 
River, from which I have lately returned. This expedition, 
commencing as it did in the fall of 1858, and being prose- 
cuted on the open plains of the 35th parallel of latitude 

230 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 231 

during the entire winter of 1858 and 1859, affords a striking 
and gratifying proof of what I have stated heretofore of the 
route on Which I have been employed, that winter offers no 
obstacle on that parallel to the passage of men and wagons, 
or travel of any description. During the entire winter my 
men were exposed night and day to the open atmosphere, 
some of the messes not using for the whole journey their 
tents, and others but very rarely. The winter was said to 
have been one of uncommon severity, yet, although my 
men were exposed on their guards at night, and in their 
duties with pick-axe and shovel in cutting down the embank- 
ments of creeks, and with the axe and saw in making 
bridges, during the day, and to the continual discomfort of 
a daily march, not one of them had occasion to complain of 
the slightest sickness during the journey. 

The country over which we passed was one of the most 
attractive description. As I have stated to you in a prev- 
ious letter, a wide and level river bottom is offered as a 
general line of travel all the way from the last settlements 
of Arkansas to the first settlements of New Mexico, and, 
although I did not follow this line exclusively, but frequently 
deviated from it to take the divide, I do not remember a 
heavy pull between Little River in Arkansas and the 
settlements of New Mexico. 

Nature has supplied the country over which we passed 
most bountifully with the three great requisites for an 
overland road — wood, grass, and water. Although I re- 
mained in New Mexico for nearly two months, it was not 
time lost, as I employed myself and a portion of my men 
in an exploration to the eastward along the line of the 
Conchas River, which afforded the most gratifying results. 
On the termination of this exploration, I broke up my 
temporary camp in February, and pursued my journey to 
the westward. 

The broken nature of the country lying immediately 
west of Fort Smith, Arkansas, occasioned by the approach 



232 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

of the spurs of the mountain ranges, which run for a dis- 
tance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles beyond the 
boundary line of the Indian Territory to the Arkansas and 
Canada Rivers, renders the construction of a railroad else- 
where than along the valleys of the streams a work of no 
little difficulty and cost. From Fort Smith two routes have 
now been reconnoitred ; one passing along the head waters 
of Poteau Creek, San Bois, and the south fork of the Cana- 
dian, and then crossing to the waters of Boggy River, whence 
the line descends to the Canadian valley near the site of old 
Fort Arbuckle; the other traversing the country imme- 
diately south of the rivers, but not touching the valleys, and 
crossing the numerous spurs and several elevated ridges 
east of the passage of the Canadian at North Fork Town, 
beyond which the surface east of Little River is even more 
broken than the more eastern portion of the route. 

Along either of these lines the maximum grade could not, 
except at an immense cost, be reduced below fifty to the 
mile, and the tortuous character which would of necessity 
attach to a Hne located upon either route would so increase 
its length that, without considering the increase of distance 
due to a proper allowance for ascents and descents, it is 
questionable, if upon the score of distance alone it would 
not be advisable to make the location along the valleys. 
The general course of the Canadian is remarkably direct 
between its mouth and the 104th meridian, it never runs 
further north than the 35th parallel, and but once passes 
below it, and in that instance flows for a distance of about 
sixty miles parallel to it, and only a few miles below it. A 
line located along the valley of this stream, from its mouth 
to the point at which it would leave it near the 104th merid- 
ian, would not exceed six hundred and thirty-five miles in 
length. There are but few points along the river where any 
considerable work would be required. East of North Fork 
Town some few bluffs would offer unimportant obstacles, 
but west of that point a magnificent valley offers every 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 233 

facility for the construction of a first-class road, with very 
low grades and easy curvature. 

The advantages which attach to a route which offers a 
continuous river valley for so long a distance for its location 
cannot be too strongly urged; there is every reason to 
believe that from Fort Smith to the main divide, between 
the waters of the Canadian and those of the Rio de las 
Gallinas, an unbroken ascending grade can be had that will 
at no point exceed twenty-five feet per mile; the entire 
ascent from Fort Smith to this point would be fifty-two 
hundred and sixty-five feet, and as there would be no 
descents whatever the equated distance would only amount 
to seven hundred and eighty-five miles of level road. 

From the divide just mentioned to the Rio Grande at 
San Felipe the distance would be about ninety-five miles, 
over a country which would compel the adoption of grades 
of 52.8 feet per mile, though careful examination might 
reduce them. Upon this division all the heavy work would 
occur, comprising the bridging of the Gallinas, the Pecos, 
and Rio Grande, and tunnelling the summits between these 
streams ; the equated distance from the Canadian summit to 
the Rio Grande would be one hundred and forty-five miles, 
making the entire distance (equated) from Fort Smith to 
San Felipe, nine hundred and thirty miles. The road from 
Fort Smith to San FeHpe may be properly divided into three 
sections : the first extending from Fort Smith to the eastern 
boundary of Texas, the second to the mouth of the Rio de 
las Conchas near the 104th meridian ; the third thence to the 
Rio Grande. 

The valley of the Arkansas is similar to that of western 
streams generally, the highlands alternately receding from 
and approaching the river — the bottom lands sometimes 
stretching out for miles, sometimes disappearing and giving 
place to bluffs; except where it is necessary to cut through 
these bluffs the work will be very Hght, the smooth level 
character of the bottom land offering every facility for easy 



234 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

construction. East of the old trading post known as 
Choteau's, the valley of the Canadian is very like that of the 
Arkansas, the bluffs, however, occur less frequently and 
the liability to overflow seems to be lessened. Going west 
the tributaries to the main streams diminish in number and 
size, and if a line be located upon the south bank of the 
river there would be but two bridges of any size needed. 
West of Choteau's, the valley of the Canadian is very wide, 
rising very gently and with an almost inappreciable slope 
from the stream toward the high land. 

The river itself is small and never apparently leaves its 
banks; long, straight stretches are of frequent occurrence; 
tangents of from ten to thirty miles in length can be easily 
laid along the valley ; the soil is a light sandy loam that can 
be easily handled and will form a firm compact roadbed; 
the dryness of the climate will expose embankments to but 
little loss from washing ; the fertility of the soil that charac- 
terizes the entire valley of the Canadian; wild grape-vines 
grow in the greatest profusion, not only in the bottoms, but 
on the first plateau; there is but little doubt of the perfect 
adaptability of this country to the production of wine ; the 
high lands that bound the river are covered at all seasons 
with a dense growth of nutritious grasses that will serve for 
the pasturage of countless herds; the country throughout 
this section is well wooded for the most part; as far as 
Choteau's, oak, hickory, cedar, etc., of large size abound; 
beyond, black oak, hackberry and cotton wood are found, in 
sufficient quantities to serve for railroad purposes and the 
wants of settlers, besides, the Washita Valley, and those of 
its tributaries will furnish a large amount of similar wood, 
with a mean transportation not exceeding twenty miles. 

The Canadian supplies a large quantity of water fit for 
all purposes, while nearly every little arroyo that approaches 
it from the hills on either side is well furnished with ever- 
flowing springs. The second division of the road follows 
the valley of the Canadian exclusively to the mouth of the 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 235 

Conchas — the character of the country is similar to that 
near the Antelope Hills; about the 104th meridian the 
valley narrows, but soon opens again, and for fifty miles east 
of the Conchas offers to the eye a magnificent expanse of 
bottom land that cannot fail to please both agriculturist and 
engineer. A good supply of timber is found along this 
division, water is abundant, and the character of the works 
precisely similar to that of the western portion of the first 
section. At the Angosturas, a short distance east of the 
Conchas, there is an admirable site for a bridge across the 
Canadian, should the north side of the river be chosen for 
this road. About this point the Canadian is a clear, free- 
flowing stream, passing over a beautiful gravel bed, and 
running between banks of from ten to twenty feet in height ; 
large groves of cottonwood and hackberry occur at frequent 
intervals. 

Up the valley of the Conchas, a tributary of the Canadian, 
there will be no trouble in finding a favorable line. The 
valley is large, free from ridges, rising very regularly, and 
smooth in its surface; the approach to the divide between 
it and the Gallinas is very gentle, not requiring a grade of 
more than twenty-five feet. At the summit a short tunnel 
will be needed. The site, however, is most favorable, and 
the material a soft sandstone, easily pierced. The descent 
to the Gallinas will be regular and easy, at the rate of thirty 
feet per mile; a bridge can be easily thrown across this 
stream with a span of one hundred feet ; the approaches on 
either side will need but little embankment. 

Beyond the Gallinas, the country is rolling, and it will be 
necessary to form a summit near the Chupainas ; the grades 
approaching it will not exceed forty feet per mile ; the work 
around will be comparatively light; it is doubtful whether 
there would be any rock excavation. An admirable site for 
a bridge across the Pecos can be found near the mouth of 
the canyon about five miles above Anton Chico. At this 
point machine shops, etc., could be advantageously estab- 



236 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

lished, as there is an abundance of coal and timber in the 
immediate vicinity, and a large water-power might be 
commanded; good building stone abounds, nor is it defi- 
cient at the Gallinas. By crossing the Pecos at this point 
rather than at or below Anton Chico, the ascent to the high 
land in approaching the canyon Blanco is materially lessened. 
To the canyon the route would traverse a somewhat broken 
country, rendering grades of about forty feet per mile neces- 
sary. At the summit, between the canyon and Gallisteo 
creek, a short tunnel through an easily excavated material 
would be needed, and a small amount of moderately heavy 
work would occur in passing to the Rio Grande. As far as 
the Lagunas timber is found in abundance, and in descend- 
ing the valley of Gallisteo creek, mottes of cedar and pinon 
are frequent, while the mountains in the immediate vicinity 
possess large forests which will furnish an endless amount of 
fuel. 

Throughout this division of the road there will be no 
difficulty in procuring the necessary timber for the purpose 
of construction. Pine, hemlock, and other forest trees of 
large size abound in the Santa Fe mountain, and along the 
head-waters of the Pecos, and other streams. The construc- 
tion of a bridge at San Felipe, while a work of no small 
magnitude, will offer no serious obstacle; three spans of 
two hundred feet each will be necessary. The bed of the 
stream is of solid rock, affording the best of foundations for 
the abutments and piers. Good building stone can be 
obtained in the immediate vicinity. 

While a mere reconnoissance does not afford sufficient 
data for an elaborate and exact estimate of cost, an approxi- 
mation may be made from notes taken along the route that 
will not vary much from the amount to be expended in the 
actual construction of the road — an estimate which it is 
thought will fully cover all expenditure is appended. It is 
based upon such knowledge of the country as can be had 
without the actual use of transit and level instruments. It 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 237 

is true that the sinuosities of the Canadian River might, by 
those disposed to find fault, be urged against the route but 
when we consider the width of its valley, its gentle rise, the 
abundant supply of wood and water, the very small cost of 
construction, and the capabilities of the country for support- 
ing a large population, these constitute, it must be ac- 
knowledged, advantages that are not found to belong, in an 
equal degree, to any other projected route across the 
continent. 

Beyond the Antelope Hills even this objection cannot 
obtain, for the course of the Canadian is remarkably 
straight from the 104th meridian to that point, and if 
this portion of the line could be connected with the 
frontier of either Missouri or Arkansas without too great 
an increase of cost, the 35th parallel route would be 
unrivalled in its claim to consideration. 

The north fork of the Canadian would probably afford a 
more direct location than the main stream, and the summit 
between it and the latter could be crossed without the 
adoption of objectionable grades. Whether the valley, 
however, would prove as favorable in other respects is 
questionable. Such a line would be worthy of a careful 
examination and comparison with the other. Another route 
from the southwestern portion of Missouri to the Antelope 
Hills is worthy of consideration. The country west of the 
Missouri frontier comprises a series of gently rolling 
prairies, well wooded and watered, of excellent soil, and not 
so broken as to offer any serious impediment to the building 
of a good road with easy grade. No difficult streams 
would require bridging, and the summits between the water 
courses could be easily crossed. A railroad connecting the 
town of Neosha with St. Louis is projected, and will, no 
doubt, be in a short time constructed. This is a fact of no 
little consequence in this connection, and unless the enter- 
prise of citizens of Arkansas arouses them to a sense of their 
position, and efforts are made to connect the flourishing 



238 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

little city of Fort Smith by rail with the east, she may for- 
feit by the neglect of her people the advantages nature has 
bestowed upon her. 

The respective merits, however, of these proposed lines 
can only be decided by a critical and careful examination by 
the civil engineer; the level and transit instruments solve 
difficulties and establish facts in a few days that would defy 
simple barometric and compass reconnoissances for years. 
A twelvemonth of careful survey would furnish reliable and 
accurate estimate for the entire route from the frontiers of 
the States to California, and in that time an examination 
could be made of all the branch lines, that the expediency 
of reducing the distances and grades to the lowest limits 
might suggest. I have already described to you the coun- 
try lying between the Del Norte and the Colorado 
River, nevertheless a recapitulation may not be thought 
unnecessary. 

Leaving Albuquerque, the first fifty miles over a country 
of sandy soil, not very well supplied with timber, but 
possessing in parts a fair amount of grass ; thence to Zuni, 
grass, wood, and water are found in sufficient quantities. 
The timber is pine, of the largest proportions existing in 
noble forests. Intermediate in this distance, by an explora- 
tion to the northward, I made important discoveries of 
mineral (copper ore) and a country of uncommon beauty. 
This region I have described in my journal, which accom- 
panies this letter, as far as the village of Zuni, and at it, a 
distance of one hundred and fifty miles to the westward of 
Albuquerque. Com forage may be obtained at short 
intervals on the road. 

From Zuni to the Little Colorado River the country is 
rolling, and well supplied with wood, water, and grass, and 
is of a good surface for the whole distance, excepting the 
wide sandy beds of several creeks, which are at times 
several feet deep, and at others dry. Once arrived on the 
banks of the Little Colorado, there is before the traveller a 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 239 

wide river bottom, and abundant grass and timber, to the 
base of the San Francisco Mountain. At this point the 
road ascends to its greatest elevation, through pine forests 
and magnificent valleys, and by an ascent so gradual that 
there is but little appearance of it to the eye. From the 
San Francisco Mountain to Floyd's Peak the country is 
very much of the same character as that between Zuni and 
the Little Colorado River, being high and rolling, but not 
hilly. It is nearly equally divided between open plains, 
covered with nutritious grasses, and dense forests of pine, 
pifion, and cedar. Between Floyd's Peak and the Colorado 
River, timber becomes scarcer, although there is still a great 
abundance until within forty miles of the river, when the 
country assumes a barren and sterile appearance. 

Among the important discoveries made during this 
exploration was the existence of the finest quality and abun- 
dant quantity of timber in a mountain, which I called on my 
first expedition "Harry Edwards' Mountain," and which is 
not over forty-five or fifty miles from "Beale's Crossing" of 
the Colorado River. I cannot conclude this letter without 
urgently calling your attention to the imperative necessity 
of building a bridge across the Rio del Norte, at or near 
Albuquerque. This is a military, civil, and emigrant 
necessity. In support of this assertion, I have the honor to 
enclose you the replies of distingmshed officers of the army 
serving in New Mexico, and thoroughly acquainted with the 
subject, to the committee appointed at a public meeting 
held in Albuquerque for the purpose of considering this 
matter. I also desire to call your attention to the itinerary 
which accompanies this letter. It is in itself an abbreviated 
history or description of the country from Arkansas to 
California, by which an emigrant may pursue the route of 
the 35 th parallel with a perfect knowledge from hour 
to hour of the character of the country in advance of 
him, its resources, climate, production, Indians, and 
game. 



240 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Without intending to draw invidious comparisons be- 
tween the various routes from our western border to the 
Pacific ocean in favor of that by the 35th parallel, I think 
I can, with safety, say that none other offers the same 
facilities for either wagon or railroad. 

It is the shortest, the best timbered, the best grassed, 
the best watered, and certainly, in point of grade, better 
than any other line between the two oceans, with which I am 
acquainted. 

For the first of these assertions an inspection of the map 
is quite sufficient proof; for the second, I rely upon the 
report of Lieutenant Whipple and my own observation, and 
especially my last exploration, which, by the discovery of 
fine pine timber in Harry Edwards' Mountain, enable me to 
state that the 35th parallel road carries abundance of cedar 
and pine to within forty miles of the State line of Califor- 
nia, within which, on the same parallel, there is abundance 
in the whole Sierra Nevada range of mountains. For the 
third proposition, I rely upon the concurrent testimony of 
all who have travelled the road and compared it with other 
trans-continental routes, who agree with me that it is 
habitable throughout. For the fourth assertion, I think 
there can be no better proof than the fact that water is at 
but one point thirty miles distant; and for the last assertion, 
I rely upon the profile of the country, which has been pre- 
pared from the instrumental observations of my two 
explorations. 

It is my firm belief that whatever influences may tend 
to divert travel from this road at present, the futiu-e will 
fully sustain the judgment of those who now advocate its 
claims. 

I have given my views in this letter of the facilities 
offered by the 35th parallel for a railroad as far as New 
Mexico. Accompanying this is an estimate also of the cost 
of that work. These may be considered by you of some 
value, and I am willing to give them to the public, in the 




o 

01 

o 

ed o 

c3 O 

m ^ 
^ I 



o 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 241 

hope that they may in some manner aid this great necessity 
of the age. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

E. F. Beale, 
Superintendent. 
Hon. J. B. Floyd, 
Secretary of War, 
Washington, D. C. 

Estimate of cost of railroad, with double track, from Fort 
Smith, Arkansas, to San Felipe, New Mexico. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

From Fort Smith to Antelope Hills, 377 miles; 
graduation, masonry, track, engineering 
expenses, and equipment $ 9,311,900 

SECOND DIVISION. 

From Antelope Hills to summit between Cana- 
dian and GalUnas, 308 miles; graduation, 
masonry, track, engineering expenses, and 
equipment 8,192,800 

THIRD DIVISION. 

From simimit to Rio Grande at San Felipe, 95 
miles; graduation, masonry, track, engi- 
neering expenses and equipment 3,886,400 

$21,391,100 

The following extracts are taken from General 
Beale's Journal of the expedition from Fort 
Smith to California. 

March 22, 1859. Taking Drs. Floyd and Spil- 
ler, the Delaware, and Little Axe, I started to 

explore the valley of Inscription Rock. Tum- 

16 



242 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

ing back on our road of yesterday nearly to the 
head of the valley, I crossed to the opposite or 
northern side; following down the north side of 
the valley came first to a dry ravine which, how- 
ever, has evidently at times much water in it, as 
the remains of a large Indian encampment proves. 

Going on to the westward close under the moun- 
tain, and crossing a sandy piece of ground, for a 
mile or more I found another of similar character, 
and having old Indian signs about it ; beyond this, 
perhaps two miles, discovered a large spring in a 
grove of small oak; this spring is about forty feet 
in diameter, a perfect circumference; good solid 
ground around even to the edge of the water, and 
issuing from it a rill of clear sweet water ; the spring 
is seven feet in depth, a thicket of cottonwood 
grows just below it, and a long line of red willow, 
of small growth, marks the course of the rivulet 
which flows from it: Inscription Rock bears by 
compass SW. by W. ; distant about eight miles; 
between this point and the rock the grass is every- 
where abundant and the soil good, but stony in 
parts; at the spring where we are at present 
encamped, are several [oaks] of great size, one of 
them over four feet in diameter, and an abundance 
of small oaks. 

Leaving our noon camp and crossing a low sandy 
ridge, we came into a sheltered valley ; here, fringed 
with cottonwood, we found a sparkling fresh flow- 
ing brook; it was of a size which in the Eastern 
States would be called a fine trout stream, and was 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 243 

as lovely a spot as one would desire to see, flowing, 
as it did, over the rocks, and making beautiful 
little cascades of clear bright water; some enormous 
pines grow in the bottom and much cedar, with 
bark resembling white oak in every respect; the 
distance from the spring to this stream is about two 
miles NW. and its bearing from the Inscription 
NE. ; remaining awhile at the stream, we pursued 
our way along the base of the mountain and 
crossing a dry bed of what is evidently at times a 
large stream, we came at nightfall to another dry 
bed, where we encamped, deferring until to-morrow 
a search up it for water ; in the bed of this stream is 
found limestone in abundance, of a gray color and 
of finest quality; in this stone we found innumer- 
able fossils, some of which we took to camp with 
us ; killed a catamount this evening. 

March 23. This morning we followed up the 
dry bed, and in a mile or two found abundant nm- 
ning water. In many places the solid limestone 
made canyons of twelve to twenty feet in height. 
Returning at ten, we raised camp and pursued our 
journey, still keeping the northern side of the 
valley and the base of the mountain, which is 
densely covered with pine of the largest size, and 
the valley rapidly becoming green in grass. Leav- 
ing camp and pursuing the same course at the foot 
of the mountains about northwest, we came in a 
mile upon another fine stream larger than the first. 
This was fringed like the other with cottonwood 
and oak, and in a grove of giant pines, on a little 



244 Edward Fitzo^erald Beale 



mound, we encamped for noon, Inscription Rock 
bearing about S. by E. The bottom lands as well 
as the hillsides are of the richest quality of soil. 

Following down the stream after nooning we 
saw on the opposite bank the ruins of an ancient 
building, which we crossed to examine. We foimd 
it larger and more perfect than those on the sum- 
mit of Inscription Rock. The wall remaining was 
about ten feet in height, built of stone, all of the 
same size and regularly laid. Opposite, in strange 
contrast with its massive appearance, were some 
deserted huts, built of mud and twigs, the houses 
of the present inhabitants of the country. It was 
ancient and modem Greece. Leaving the stream 
and pursuing oiu* coiu-se, and passing over a soil 
of incomparable richness, we came at sundown 
after travelling about four miles to another brisk 
running stream, on which we encamped in large 
pines at the foot of the mountain. ... I killed 
another catamount this evening. 

March 24. This morning, breakfast on wild- 
cat being over, we started to explore the creek to 
its head. We fotmd much rich copper ore on its 
banks. About a mile above our camp several 
rich and pretty pieces of malachite were found. 
Following up the moimtain we came to a grove of 
quaking aspen. Above this the stream flowed 
almost to its head, over a broad flat rock which 
seemed as though it might be the very backbone of 
the world. 

We found the stream had three forks. Two we 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 245 

explored to their heads. Both issued out from 
under the rocks near the summit of the mountain. 
The right hand fork is the largest and bursts out 
of the mountainside a full-grown brook and goes 
on its way making cascades over the rocks, rushing 
and sparkling through the crevices in fine style. 
In ascending these forks we found several spots 
where cattail was growing luxuriantly, and which 
gave unmistakable evidence of living water. The 
view from the summit was of the grandest descrip- 
tion. We found the mountain covered to the 
summit with lofty pines, and but little snow, 
scarcely any upon it. 

Leaving this camp and travelling about five 
miles, still along the foot of the moimtain and over 
the richest description of soil, we arrived at the 
largest stream we had yet seen. It would be 
impossible to do justice to the view from our pres- 
ent camp. Guided by the roar of the water we 
followed up the stream a hundred or two yards 
above our camp and there found it issuing from 
the moimtain, roaring and boiling and struggling 
among the rocks of the canyon. Looking up toward 
the mountain, up the bed of the stream, nothing 
cotild be wilder or more savage. The powerful 
stream pent up in the narrow solid rocks seemed 
in torture to get free, and was twisted and turned 
from its arrow-like career at every inch by the 
rocks which stubbornly opposed it. At times it 
broke with tremendous bounds in cascades, and at 
others formed deep whirls and pools of foam, al- 



246 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

ways violent, restless and noisy. The steep sides of 
the mountain even to the verge of the canyon, and 
where there was room within it were covered with 
pine, and on all sides huge rocks and broken trees, 
with occasional patches of snow. 

Ttuning from this scene of savage grandeur, just 
below and stretching for miles was a quiet, smiling, 
abundantly fertile valley, through the centre of 
which the fierce stream above flowed as peacefully 
as though its waters had never been vexed and 
tortured by the rocky walls of a canyon. On the 
opposite side, about five miles off, a high mesa of 
red and white sandstone rose perpendicularly, its 
summit and its base covered with cedar. . . . This 
stream cuts directly across the valley we have been 
traversing, and enters a canyon on the opposite 
side ... its course is nearly north and south. 
Here also we found, in a hill on the sides of which 
we encamped and quite near to where the river 
comes out of the canyon, rich copper ore. From 
this point Inscription Rock bears about SE. by S. 
and distant some eighteen miles. 

The climate of this region is most unexception- 
able; the days warm, the air pure, the nights cool 
without being too cold. . . . 

March 25. To-day I return to camp, my duties 
requiring my presence there. I shall cross to the 
opposite side of the valley, and return by it to 
Inscription Rock; my exploration has been in every 
way most satisfactory, disclosing as it has a coim- 
try rich in everything that makes the habitation of 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 247 

man prosperous and happy; to New Mexico it is 
of incalculable importance, and I trust to live to 
see my labors of the past few days rendered useful 
by the enterprise of our people, and some day to 
find flourishing settlements and prosperous com- 
munities where our footsteps have trodden, in 
what is now a wilderness known only to the 
wretched Indians who now inhabit it. . . . 

March 26. We left El Moro, Inscription Rock, 
early, and travelling over our old road, which we 
found excellent, and well timbered and grassed, 
the surface being nearly level and without a hard 
pull, we nooned at the beautiful spring of the Ojo 
Pescado ; we crossed the Zuni River before coming 
to and after leaving this spring, a mile on either 
side of it; the river was full and running rapidly; it 
was about twenty-five feet in width and three in 
depth; it is sometimes quite dry where we crossed 
it though water is always to be found in it below. 

After nooning we travelled on to within ten miles 
of Zuni, where we encamped near the river, in good 
grass and wood plenty. Going toward Zuni it is 
always well to encamp at a distance of ten miles or 
so from the town, as nearer, one does not find good 
grass or wood, the Indian sheep and ponies requir- 
ing it nearly all, besides which, most of the valley 
is cultivated in com and wheat. 

March 27. We entered Zimi to-day. We had 
a wagon under charge of Mr. George Beall three 
days in advance, trading with the Indians for com, 
and having obtained a sufficiency we moved on 



248 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

about six or seven miles from town to a good camp 
in the cedars and about half a mile from the river. 
The day was very disagreeable with a high wind 
blowing the dust in every direction, reminding us 
of Washington City in a winter gale. Before 
reaching the town about two miles we crossed the 
Zuni River for the last time, and already beginning 
to lose a large portion of its waters in the loose soil 
of the valley. The old Governor met me in the 
town with many compliments and congratulations, 
and bearing in his arms a box containing my "arti- 
ficial horizon" which I had left with him in passing 
last winter. 

He told me the charge had been a great burden 
on his mind and he was glad to be rid of the re- 
sponsibility ; rewarding him with several blankets 
and pieces of calico, I sat down in his house to hear 
the news. He had a long list of grievances. The 
United States had persuaded him into an alliance 
with the troops as auxiliaries in the late war with 
the Navajoes; his people had fought with our 
troops side by side like brothers; the United 
States had found it convenient to make peace 
with their enemies and had left their auxil- 
iaries the prey of their powerful and numerous 
foes. 

I told him I thought it served hiiji right for 
meddling in things which did not concern him, and 
warned him for the future to avoid "all entangling 
alliances." I left town after giving some things to 
the Indians and trading for some corn-meal, and 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 249 

through the dust which was nearly blinding, we 
rode to camp. 

April 29. We arrived early this evening at the 
springs at the Colorado Mountain, where we found 
the water very plentiful. We played off a very 
good joke on the Indians last evening, which 
brought up our accounts quite square with them ; 
about sundown after they had killed the mule and 
stolen the one mentioned yesterday, I caused the 
mules to be hitched up, and camp made ready in as 
much apparent confusion as possible, knowing the 
devils were watching every movement we made; it 
was so managed that we got off at night, so that 
they could not see the men we left behind con- 
cealed in the rocks. 

After going a few miles as if we had been fright- 
ened off and were moving to seek more open 
groimd, we encamped and built our fire. All this 
must have amused Mr. Indian vastly, and doubt- 
less he chuckled hugely how they had frightened 
us. The men left behind lay in the rocks until day- 
light when, just as we expected, our red brothers 
came down to see the mule they had killed, and 
what damage besides they had done us, when our 
party fell upon them and killed four, returning to 
camp before we were ready to start in the morning, 
bringing bows, arrows, and scalps as vouchers; 
it was a good practical joke — "a merrie jest of ye 
white man and ye Indian." 

April 30. Went to the summit of the mountain 
and to the base on the other side to look at the road. 



250 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

We saw the river very plainly but could see nothing 
of the troops, and so shall make our preparations 
to go down and give the Mohaves a turn in 
the morning, for which the men are busy pre- 
paring their arms. ... I shall take with me 
thirty-five men and three days* provisions on 
three camels. The men will go on foot, so 
that we shall not be encumbered with mules 
to guard while we are fighting; as for the 
camels, they will pack our provisions and require 
no guarding, as they will feed well tied up to 
a bush. 

May I. Left camp early with thirty-five men 
all on foot, and in fighting trim with nothing to 
carry but their rifles, knives, and revolvers, the 
camels packed with provisions following close 
behind us. We marched the twenty-five miles in 
six hours. On our arrival at the river we saw 
Indians, and the men as soon as they had drunk 
started out to get a shot. Whilst they were htmt- 
ing them through the thick undergrowth which 
fills the bottom, and about three hours after we 
arrived, we were surprised at seeing three or four 
white men coming up the trail. These informed us 
that the troops were encamped on a bend of the 
river a few miles below, and that Colonel Hoffman 
had made a treaty with the Indians; so that we 
immediately called in our men much to their dis- 
appointment and intense disgust. Here I heard 
that our caches of provisions had been raised by 
the soldiers so that I would be obliged to go into 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 251 

the settlements for more. Major Armistead is at 
present in command of the troops. 

The construction and maintenance of national 
wagon roads across the plains was laid aside upon 
the outbreak of the Civil War and not resumed 
when peace came, as, in the meantime, the railway 
era had begun. The situation of affairs when Gen- 
eral Beale was called to the post of surveyor-general, 
not to survey nor to examine land titles but to help 
keep the Pacific Coast territory in the Union, is well 
described by a correspondent of the Philadelphia 
Press, who under the signatiu'e of "Wanderer" 
writes to his paper in the following terms under 
date of October 15, 1859, from Gum Spring, 
Choctaw Nation. 

. . . Having yesterday made more than the usual day's 
travel, and the ponies evincing distress, we have, early this 
afternoon, made camp and a huge fire under a spreading 
oak of lordly dimensions. We are east of the Winchester 
Mountains, and not more than two days' journey from 
Arkansas. I have the cacoethes scrihendi upon me, and as 
we have had our coffee and several pipes, and the usual chat 
about our good old city of Philadelphia, I sprawl myself 
upon the machilla of my saddle to wear out the sun, now 
nearly two hours high, with writing something of the routes 
to the Pacific. 

Ever since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave us our 
California possessions, the same motive that actuates 
England to draw her Indian colonies to her by lessening the 
distance and shortening the length of travel between them 
and the mother country, and that also impels France to 
desire a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez has induced 



252 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

speculations and explorations for a railway route across 
this continent. There has been a myriad of theories de- 
duced from books and nicely sketched; daring men have 
explored in every quarter; the Government press has 
poured out ponderous tome after tome filled with itineraries ; 
appropriations have been made by Congress for the con- 
struction of wagon roads in order to facilitate the emigration 
of the hardy pioneers, who with their families plunge into 
the wildernesses of the Far West to raise up new settle- 
ments — these things have gone on steadily until the pubHc 
mind has become fully awakened to the importance in a 
military as well as commercial point of view, of a railway 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The large majority 
of the people of the United States are undoubtedly in favor 
of some route, but the particular route to be selected is the 
question at issue. 

A Pacific railroad as a Government project can only be 
sustained upon the ground of its necessity as a national work. 
Not to lose the force of an argument so vital, the route 
ought to be neither an extreme northern nor an extreme 
southern one, unless there are insuperable obstacles to a 
central route by which of course all sections of the country 
would be equally benefited. I don't mean that a pair of 
dividers should fix the centre and a route be marked and 
followed accordingly ; but that the best practical route near 
the centre of the Confederacy should be selected; the one 
that gives the easiest crossing of the Rocky Mountains, and 
furnishes wood, water, and grass, at all seasons of the year. 
This route, beyond all cavil, is that laid down and travelled 
by Lieut. Beale. Of the wagon roads started some have 
been abandoned and others drag their slow length along. 
Beale rapidly marked his upon the route of the thirty-fifth 
parallel, crossed it and recrossed it with large parties and 
small parties, with camels and without them, with heavy 
teams and the last time, I am told, with a light buggy. 

A paper which I found up the country, I think it was The 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 253 

St. Louis Republican, contained the information that Mr. 
Beale had arrived home, that he had taken his party home 
by a more northern route in order to compare it as he had 
all the other routes with his own; that his examinations had 
been rigid and impartial and that the conclusion was 
irresistibly in favor of the route from Fort Smith over the 
thirty-fifth parallel through Albuquerque in New Mexico to 
California. It is the most direct route, not dipping as the 
route now followed by the overland mail does hundreds of 
miles south into Texas. 

I am confident from what I have seen of it that it is as 
good a natural road as can be found. . . . Besides, from 
Albuquerque to California the road has been improved; it 
has been deeply marked by the heavy teams, trees have 
been cut down out of the way where it could be shortened, 
and bridges have been constructed over the streams. Then 
come the plains and you strike Little River. The Canadian 
is fordable, or a ferry is to be had at all times. The other 
streams between Fort Smith and Little River are crossed 
with substantial iron bridges sent out from Philadelphia. 
Mr. Edwards has his men now engaged upon the double 
span bridge over the Poteau, which will be completed ere 
long. 

The Choctaws have commenced to improve the road over 
the Winchester Mountain, and a project is afoot to turnpike 
the road from the bridge through the fearful boggy bottom 
of the Poteau and Arkansas to the village of Skullyville. 
Thus will there be a good wagon road or road for any kind 
of travel from the East to California. Already railroads 
are creeping towards Fort Smith by the way of Little Rock 
from Memphis and from St. Louis. The forerunner of 
railway travel, the telegraph, will station itself soon, as 
soon, I learn, as the poles can be put up, at Fort Smith, 
which of itself will lessen the time of news communication 
from California three or four days. All these things are 
signs. 



254 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

I have seen Santa Fe traders taking Beale's route as far 
as it would take them to their destinations. You never 
saw a Santa Fe party? Riding in advance is a young man 
armed with his six shooter and knife, and a fowhng piece. 
His dress is for use rather than show, yet show is not for- 
gotten as the red sash round his waist w411 testify, as well as 
the rich blue ribbon that binds his hat, and flutters its ends 
in the wind. His saddle has the high cantle and pommel, 
the broad wooden stirrups, the leg-flaps and the wide 
leathern manchilla that covers the frame in the day and 
serves at night as part of his bed to prevent the sharp 
stones and sticks and damp getting at him. All these like 
the old fashioned Spanish or Moorish saddles, the awful 
spurs and check bit weighing something less than a ton, 
must not be forgotten. 

Anon and we see two hard-faced grave-looking men 
mounted upon serious-looking mules, that have their tails 
shaved off, except a slight bunch of hair at the end, giving 
them a ludicrous appearance. They are in deep chat but 
salute us with much dignity as we pass them. In the woods 
and prairie are others of the party hunting fresh meat for 
the evening meal. Then there are the heavily-laden 
wagons drawn by their half-dozen ox-teams each, the loose 
cattle, the teamsters, and the long ox-whip cracking on 
every side its eternal noise. We saw an Indian just behind 
the party tricked in his best. He was on his way to pay a 
visit. . . . 

If Edward F. Beale had been a Massachusetts man, his 
services to his country would have teemed the papers with 
his exploits, his daring and his usefulness. The more 
credit to Massachusetts! A young lieutenant in the navy 
during the war with Mexico, not his least daring act was to 
carry despatches through Mexico itself. In California, he 
gathered the wild Indians that threatened the lives and 
property of the settlers and miners upon reserves and there 
taught them agriculture and to earn their own subsistence. 



The Journey along the 35th Parallel 255 

His merit gained for him from California high praise, 
together with a commission as Brigadier- General. Hon. 
Jefferson Davis, when a Senator from Mississippi, before 
entering Gen. Pierce's cabinet was impressed with the belief 
that camels if introduced into this country would be of vast 
use in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, and he made 
efforts to have the matter tested. When the camels were 
brought over, under his administration of the War Depart- 
ment, he selected Mr. Beale to take the camels and decide 
the point he had so much at heart. We all know how well 
Mr. Beale discharged this duty and in what an unprece- 
dentedly short space of time the first mail over Mr. 
Beale's route across the continent was brought by the 
camels. 

In concluding his letter ''Wanderer" laments, a 
sentiment that was surely not shared by General 
Beale, that after the wagon road over the 35th 
parallel had been completed he should be allowed 
to retire quietly into the circle of his friends in 
Chester, Delaware County, Pa., without receiving 
ovations. 

The same people [he adds reproachfully] that hung 
with raptures over the foolish and profitless daring of 
Blondin in walking a rope stretched over the Niagara Falls 
are neglectful of the courage and the hardihood and suffer- 
ing of the man who traverses this Continent amid every 
conceivable danger from disease, the elements, and the yet 
more ruthless hand of hostile savages to prepare the way 
for new cities and States and greater power and influence 
for our Republic. 



CHAPTER XIV 
General Beale as Surveyor-General 

Lincoln Appoints Beale Surveyor-General of California and 
Nevada — Plans of the Secessionists — Beale Persuades 
Lincoln not to Enforce the Draft in CaHfomia — 
Weathering the Crisis — Beale's Letter to the President 
Volunteering for Service in the Field — His Views on 
the Cause and Probable Consequences of Civil War 
PubHshed by the Philadelphia Press— "The Fate of 
the Commons of the World Depends upon the Issue 
of the Struggle" — Beale's Letter to Secretary Chase 
Favoring Acquisition of Lower California by United 
States — Chase's Reply — Letters from the Mexican 
General Vega — Beale's Sympathies with the Liberal 
though Fugitive Government across the Border — 
Grant and Beale Contrive to Send Muskets to Juarez 
— President Diaz's Recognition in After Years of 
Beale's Assistance in This the Hour of Need. 

ONE of the first appointments made by- 
Lincoln after his inauguration was that of 
Beale to the post of surveyor-general of 
California and Nevada. In ordinary times the 
post of surveyor-general with the control of the 
public lands and the duty of locating the old 
Spanish grants and translating them into English 

256 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 257 

measures was important enough, but Beale soon 
found that the duties to which he was urged to 
address himself with particular zeal were almost 
exclusively extra-official. 

The overshadowing issue of the moment, west as 
well as east of the Sierra Nevada, was that of union 
or secession, and the political outlook in California 
was anything but reassuring to Northern sympa- 
thizers. It must be admitted that the southern 
settlers in California, though doubtless outnum- 
bered by the Unionists, were exceedingly active 
and well organized, and when Sumter was fired on 
it was generally believed that the secession organi- 
zation aided by the lukewarmness of a large alien 
population would succeed in taking California out 
of the Union in a few weeks. 

Such was the situation when Lincoln bestowed 
upon Beale his confidence and gave him full charge. 
The papers dealing with the political affairs of this 
important and interesting period were nearly all 
destroyed in the recent great fire in San Francisco 
when the archives of the Pioneers' Library went 
up in flames. Fortunately, however, the memory 
of General Beale's successful activity still survives 
in the recollections of those who knew distracted 
California in war time. 

It was only a few days after General Beale had 
been appointed, and when assisted by the other 
U. S. officials he was engaged in developing and 
organizing the Unionist sentiment of the State, 
that the draft proclamation from Washington 



258 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

arrived. Suddenly aroused like a leviathan from 
its slumbers, the Government was going to work 
on a large scale but somewhat automatically, the 
same in Maine as in Nevada, in California as in 
Connecticut, without the slightest regard for local 
conditions and local prejudices. 

Beale recognized that the publication of the 
draft and its attempted enforcement would not 
bring many men into the Union armies, and on the 
other hand might tip the balance, imtil then with 
such difficulty preserved, and send California into 
the secession ranks. Upon his own responsibility 
General Beale suppressed the proclamation, and in 
a forcible despatch to Washington laid before 
Lincoln the reasons which had induced him to 
take this extraordinary step. Lincoln approved 
and applauded Beale's course. He wrote upon the 
surveyor-general's letter, "Draft suspended in 
California until General Beale shall indicate that 
the times are more auspicious." 

In a few weeks the Unionists, now thoroughly 
aroused and effectively organized, made their 
presence felt in the State. Califomians though 
not drafted were volunteering for the Union 
army in larger proportion to the population than 
was the case in some of the Eastern States. 
Beale feeling now that the immediate crisis was 
over, thought that he might with propriety ad- 
dress the President, acquainting him with his 
desire for active service in the field. He did it 
in the following terms: 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 259 

San Francisco, Cal., 

July 24, 1861. 

His Excellency President Lincoln: 

A short time ago you did me the honor to appoint me to a 
most important and responsible position for which I beg 
you to accept my grateful acknowledgment. Under any 
other condition of public affairs, you have left me nothing 
to desire; but to the flag under which I have received 
honorable wounds, under which my father and my grand- 
father fought for the honor and the glory of the country, I 
think I owe something more, in this hour of trial, than a 
mere performance of duty in a position of ease and quiet. 
To the government I owe early education and support, for 
I entered its service almost a child and feel toward it a 
filial affection and gratitude. All that I have, even my 
life I owe to it, and it is a debt I am willing gratefully and 
cheerfully to discharge. 

From fourteen to twenty-five my life was passed at sea, 
and for the past fifteen years principally on the great plains 
and in the Rocky Mountains. I served during the Mexican 
War, and at its close I resigned and have been engaged in 
many expeditions of some importance since. I know that 
I am resolute, patient, and active and if I had not courage, 
my love of country would supply the want of it in such a 
time as this. Devoted to my country, and owing it every- 
thing I have in the world, I write to offer my services to you 
in any capacity you may wish to use them until the present 
rebellion is crushed out of the land. You cannot add to the 
distinction you have already conferred upon me by any 
appointment, for there is none within your gift more dis- 
tinguished or more honorable; nor do I desire any change 
except that I may more efficiently serve the United 
States. In a word I wish simply to offer my life for the 
flag. 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 

E. F. Beale. 



26o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

The Press of Philadelphia — Oct. 9, 1861 — repro- 
duces in part a letter which General Beale wrote 
some weeks later to a personal friend in Wash- 
ington and which apparently arrived by the same 
mail that brought his proffer of service to President 
Lincoln. In this communication General Beale 
says: 

Nothing could be more delightful or agreeable to me than 
the office I hold, at least in California! Nevertheless I feel 
that if my services are required this is no time to withhold 
them from my country. I have been looking forward with 
the keenest delight to two or three years of rest after so 
many long ones of hardship, but I will cheerfully put oflF my 
time of rest still longer, or find eternal rest in an honorable 
grave under the old flag. I conscientiously beHeve that the 
fate of the commons of the world depends upon the issue of 
the struggle and I am willing if need be to devote my life 
to the great cause of the people. 

Commenting editorially the Press said the letter 
would be read with pleasure alike for its noble 
spirit and cheering example. 

Lincoln, however, and as the event proved wisely, 
for the secession movement in the State was not 
dead or even sleeping, decided to keep Beale in a 
position where it was recognized he had rendered 
such invaluable services. The President's decision 
was a great blow to the General, but he took it like 
a man and a patriot. From California at least 
there was no "fire from the rear " directed upon the 
war administration. 

Early in 1863, General Beale began to take an 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 261 

interest in the Mexican revolution which provoked 
or rather invited the French intervention and its 
consequences in which the United States became 
so closely involved. Beale had always regretted 
that the war of 1847 between Mexico and the 
United vStates had not ended in the acquisition 
of the Peninsula of Lower California. He had 
always regarded its possession as necessary to the 
safety and to the prosperity of Upper California, 
and indeed of the whole Southwest. The General 
frequently stated, without, however, revealing his 
authority, that it had been the purpose of President 
Polk to demand for strategic reasons Lower Cali- 
fornia, then more even than now a vacant wilder- 
ness. The matter, however, seemed of so little 
importance to the American peace commissioners 
that the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed 
and sealed before their important oversight was 
discovered. 

Thinking the moment opportune General Beale 
brought up the question again, and the following 
interesting correspondence took place between him 
and the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase. 

San Francisco, 
Aug. 5th, 1863. 
Sir: 

I have written several letters to Thomas Brown, Esq., 
U. S. Agent for the Pacific Coast, on the importance of the 
acquisition of the Peninsula of Lower California by the 
United States. 

I am quite sure I have not exaggerated the great value 
to our country of that long mountain ridge which abounds 



262 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

in good harbors on both the Gulf coast and the Pacific 
and is filled wdth mineral wealth of every description. I 
beg you will give this subject a few hours* consideration. 
Valuable and abundantly occupied as your time is I assure 
you this matter is worthy of your attention. I desire most 
particularly to call your attention to the fact that we have 
it in our power at this time by purchase of Lower California 
and a very small portion of the opposite coast, to possess the 
mouth of the Colorado destined to be as important to us on 
the Pacific as is the Mississippi to the Eastern States. If 
the line of the Gadsden purchase was straightened, instead 
of being deflected at 1 1 1 degrees of longitude, and touched 
the Gulf at the Coast, and we should possess ourselves of 
Lower CaHfornia, we should then control entirely the 
navigation of the Colorado, which the future will prove of 
the utmost importance to the welfare of the Pacific Coast 
States. 

The mountains which border the Colorado abound in 
vast resources and in mineral wealth which has but just 
commenced to excite and lead our people to their explora- 
tion and development while its rich bottom land invites 
our farmers with most flattering prospects to their cultiva- 
tion. Cotton, sugar and tobacco will there find their 
largest crops and furnish their greatest returns to commerce. 
Lower California as I have before written possesses mines 
of incalculable extent and inestimable value while its 
harbors are numerous and secure. This cannot have 
escaped the French sagacity, and if it is not purchased 
now or taken possession of by us it may very soon be 
too late to do so at all. It seems to me this might be 
easily accomplished by a purchase from the Government 
party lately expelled from the City of Mexico by the 
French. If this was done without noise and the ports of 
La Paz and Guaymas promptly occupied, we might easily 
with five thousand men drawn from the Army of New 
Mexico, where they are actually entirely useless, and 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 263 

placed under a proper commander, defy foreign inter- 
position to prevent our holding the new territory- 
forever. 

You may be sure that those who live after us on this 
coast will not hold the memory of that administration in 
high respect which will have allowed a foreign power to 
collect toll at the mouth of the Mississippi, of the Pacific, 
after having lost the opportunity of its acquisition for our 
own people. 

Offering my services to you in any manner in which I 
can serve the country, 

I have the honor to be. Sir, 

Your Obt. Servt., 

E. F. Beale. 
Honorable S. P. Chase, 
Secretary of the Treasury^ 
Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Chase's reply reads: 

Treasury Department, 
Sept. 5th, 1863. 

My dear Sir : 

Yours of the 5th of August has just reached me. I 
appreciate as you do the importance of the acquisition you 
suggest. I fear that the Juarez Government is now too 
entirely broken to warrant negotiations with it but I will 
confer with the President and Secretary of State on that 
subject. 

What a pity it is that we neglected our opportunities 
when the states of Central America were so ready to 
identify their fortunes with those of the American Union! 
What a pity it is also, that when General Scott took Mexico 
he did not remain there and establish a protectorate ! The 
timid counsels of the Whig leaders and the fears of the 
slave-holding oligarchy suppressed a pohcy which would 



264 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

have prevented all our present troubles so far as French 
domination in Mexico is concerned. 

Yours Very Truly, 

S. P. Chase. 
To 

E. F. Beale, Esq. 

Later General Beale again wrote the Secretary 
of the Treasury on the subject he had so near 
at heart, and in the following terms: 

San Francisco, Nov. 5, 1863. 
Sir: 

While I thank you very much for your reply to my letter 
in relation to possessing ourselves of the mouth of the 
Colorado and the Peninsula of Lower CaUfomia I must 
beg again to intrude upon yotu- time on the same 
subject. 

Every day more and more convinces me of the importance 
of our owning the country of which I have spoken. Every 
day new and rich discoveries in the precious metals are 
drawing attention to that region and rendering its purchase 
more difficult. If Mexico could always keep it, it would 
be greatly to our disadvantage, but in the hands or under 
the influence and control of any other Power, it would be 
ruinous to our commercial prospects on that part of the 
Coast. 

We must have the whole Peninsula with its magnificent 
harbors and bays even if we have to fight France for it. I 
beg you to remember that this river reaches with its 
tributaries spread out Uke a fan for a thousand miles into 
the very bowels of our continent and terminates in that 
long and narrow placid sea which washes the shores of 
Sonora on one side, and the Peninsula of Lower Cahfornia 
on the other, for more than seven hundred and fifty 
miles. 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 265 

The Gulf of California is the mouth of the Colorado. 

It is possible to buy up for insignificant sums immense 
grants of land in both Sonora and Lower California. These 
grants are what are called floating grants, that is, they are 
unlocated. It occurred to me to buy up these grants and 
locate them so as to cover the mouth of the Colorado and 
that this title might be somehow transferred to the U.S. Gov- 
ernment. It is true an individual woiild not, in making the 
purchase, buy with it the sovereignty, but the fact that the 
land was all owned by citizens of the United States might 
predispose Mexico to part with its sovereignty for a small 
consideration of some commercial character which we 
could make. It may be that this is not possible, but in 
conference with Mr. Brown and Col. James, we thought it 
probable that your experience might find in this scheme 
something by which this most desirable result could be 
accomplished. 

I trust you will not think I underrate the hazards of a war 
with France. I believe I fully appreciate all its cost added 
to our present struggle but I know that in a few months 
more it will be almost impossible to possess ourselves of this 
country, and I believe it worth all a war will cost us. More- 
over since your letter I find Juarez is again at the head of a 
respectable army and as we still recognize his Government 
why could not a secret treaty of purchase be made with him 
and kept secret for the present until we have more time to 
devote to outside matters? 

I beg you to excuse my writing to you again on this sub- 
ject. I do it with infinite regret, for I can imagine how 
every moment of your time is fully occupied. Still, I am 
somewhat encouraged to intrude upon you again, as I 
interpret that portion of your late speech at Cincinnati 
(Oct. 12) into a determination not to allow France to have 
things entirely her own way in Mexico and your very kind 
letter to me satisfies me that the interests of the Pacific 
Coast are not forgotten or neglected by you in the midst of 



266 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

all the herculean labors you are daily performing in the 
service of your country. 

I have the honor to be your Obt. Servt., etc., 

E. F. Beale. 
Hon. S. P. Chase, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 

If the press of California is to-day well informed 
the Congressional delegation of that State would 
seem to be under instructions from their constit- 
uents to bring to the attention of Congress in the 
winter of 191 2 the policy of reshaping the Mexican 
frontier line which General Beale urged so strongly 
upon the Secretary of the Treasury in 1863. 

The plans, the hopes and the fears of the Mexican 
revolutionists of the day are very clearly revealed 
in the following letters addressed to Beale by Gen. 
Placido Vega who was operating in Sinaloa. 
Spanish originals of these letters are preserved 
among the Beale papers. 

Generals-in-Chief of the Brigade of Sinaloa 

Excellency : 

In the many conferences which we have had with 
reference to the French Invasion and the firm resolve of the 
Constitutional Government to fight to the last extremity to 
defend the nationaUty and independence of our country, it 
has given me very great pleasure to see the interest and 
the sympathy with which you have followed the heroic 
efforts of my Fatherland in the defence of the most sacred 
of causes. 

Of course nothing less was to be expected from a worthy 
general of the Republic, nourished and fortified in the 
doctrines of Liberty and in the rights of man, or from one 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 267 

who also understands how dangerous it would be for the 
political principles in the worship of which we are core- 
ligionists, to permit the development on the American 
Continent of the monarchical principle that the party of 
European Reaction pretends and seeks to promulgate. 

Holding as I do these views the generous offers which you 
have been kind enough to make, of your services for the 
purpose of expediting the export of arms and munitions 
which have been gathered in this city compel the deepest 
gratitude of my countrjrmen, and of the Constitutional 
Government and I for my part am pleased to be called upon 
to voice this sentiment in which I participate in the highest 
degree. 

I accept then the good disposition you have shown in 
favor of my country's cause and leave entirely to your 
loyalty and good faith all the arrangements for the departure 
of the munitions and arms from this state that may seem 
to you most convenient, in the understanding however that 
I will personally embark on the ship with them. 

The munitions referred to are now deposited in the ware- 
houses of the government, and also in those of private 
individuals. In the same way they should be sent out to 
the Colorado consigned to the person you may see fit to 
designate. 

At the first opportunity I shall place in your hands the 
receipts and all the papers relative to the consignment so 
that you may arrange the freight and indeed all other 
questions which their export may entail. I also beg to 
inform you for your guidance that I will bring on board 
with me very excellent pilots of the coasts in question whom 
I have recruited in advance for the greater security of our 
landing. 

The well deserved influence and consideration which you 
enjoy in the official and all respectable circles in this city 
and in the other states of the Union procure for you facilities 
to render important services to my country such as no one 



268 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

else could; for this reason and because I am convinced that 
your party has sympathy for our cause and the good will 
to aid us to sustain it, I do not impress upon you the fact 
that the actual circumstances of the Constitutional Govern- 
ment of Mexico demands the greatest economy in the pur- 
chase of arms although they are so urgently needed. And 
it is on the score of this very urgency that I suggest to you 
to select a steamer so that the cargo may the sooner arrive. 
Even the very moments are indeed precious. 

The preceding suggestions should not be construed as 
instructions for the performance of the mission you have 
been so kind as to accept. On the contrary I merely submit 
them to your good judgment so that you may modify them as 
you think best and in order that you may with your per- 
fect knowledge of men and of affairs adopt the means most 
suitable for carrying out the work we have in hand. In 
sending this note I have the honor to offer to you the 
consideration of my particular respect and esteem. 
Independence — Liberty — Reform. 

San Francisco, May 17th, 1864, 

Placido Vega, 
To Gen. E. F. Beale. 

And again on the following day General Vega 
writes : 

Mexican Republic, 
Department of Sinaloa. 

The Supreme Government of the Mexican RepubUc, 
vested by the honorable Congress with extraordinary 
powers has authorized me to dispose of the Salinas or salt 
works or deposits on the Island of Carmen, which belong to 
the territory of Lower California, so that funds may be 
secured with which it would be possible to purchase the 
machinery necessary to the manufacture of munitions of 
war. The salt deposits have been profitably worked and 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 269 

there is no reason to fear they would not be profitable to any- 
one advancing money on the lease. 

With the object of raising the desired funds I delegated 
my authority in the matter to the Licenciado Jos6 Aguirre 
de la Barrera who acting under the instructions which I 
communicated to him previously went to New York and to 
other states and cities of the Union. He was by means of 
very brilliant work successful. I shall not molest Your 
Excellency with the details of his mission, in forming a 
company to lease the salt works on the lines and in the 
manner set forth in the contract which I submit herewith 
as an enclosure. 

All possible funds having been obtained in this manner 
we have been able to purchase the machinery and the 
munitions of war so ardently desired by my Government. 
These articles shotdd arrive in this port within a short time. 
I would also inform you, as the enclosed papers show, that 
we have purchased five thousand Austrian rifles through 
the agency of Licenciado Pedro Barrera and these 
rifles are also expected to arrive in this city in a few 
days. 

I have wished to keep you informed of these events 
because I have felt it my duty to reciprocate the many 
marks of sympathy and confidence you have been good 
enough to show to my country and to my cause, also because 
I trust you will continue to assist Senores Barrera and 
Aguirre in carrying out the duties with which they have 
been charged. 

These gentlemen, who already have the honor of being 
in communication with you will inform you of any details 
you may wish to know in regard to our current affairs and 
will call upon you should circumstances arise requiring 
your influence and co-operation. Again I have the honor 
to renew the assurances of my respectful thanks and 
sincere esteem. 

Independence — Liberty — Reform. 



270 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Beale was at this time in close touch with General 
Grant. They had after Vicksburg resumed their 
long interrupted correspondence. Grant was more 
strongly in favor of a forward policy in Mexico 
than Seward and would seem to have been, from 
1864 on, in communication with the Liberals of 
Mexico, Beale probably acting as his intermediary. 
Grant's attitude at this time is made plain in Gen- 
eral Badeau's volume, Grant in Peace. Badeau says 
that on the first day of the Grand Review in 
Washington, at the conclusion of the war. Grant 
hurried Sheridan off to Texas (see page 181): 

"There must be a large amount of captured ordnance 
in your command," said Grant, and Sheridan was directed 
to send none of these articles to the North. "Rather place 
them," said Grant, "convenient to be permitted to go into 
Mexico, if they can be gotten into the hands of the defenders 
of the only Government we recognize in that country. " 

On the 30th of July, 1866, Grant again wrote Sheridan, 
"Since the repeal of our neutrality laws I am in hopes of 
being able to get authority to dispose of all our surplus 
ammunition within your command to the Liberals of 
Mexico. Seward is a powerful ally of horns, Napoleon, in 
my opinion, but I am strongly in hope that his aid will do 
the Empire no good. " 

Evidently the Administration in Washington 
was of two minds how to approach the problem 
which the presence of Maximilian in Mexico pre- 
sented. While sending notes, more or less diplo- 
matic, to the Tuileries, with the tacit approval 
of the Administration, something much more sub- 





Kit Carson Statue 

Frederick MacMounies, Sculptor 
Courtesy of Theodore K. Starr, Esq. 



General Beale as Surveyor-General 271 

stantial was sent across the frontier to the Liberals 
of Mexico, and it is certain that all the surplus 
ammunition and the condemned muskets so plenti- 
ful at the close of the war in Texas now mysteri- 
ously disappeared. For his part, General Beale 
turned over to General Vega eight thousand mus- 
kets. He never was inclined to speak of the provi- 
dence of these muskets but seemed confident they 
fell into the hands of Juarez and were used in the 
battles around Queretaro in which the fate of the 
Mexican Empire was tragically decided. This 
view was confirmed twenty years later when Presi- 
dent Diaz, at a Union League Club dinner in New 
York at which Beale was present and made the 
address of welcome, hailed him as a friend of 
Mexico in her hour of trial and as one who had 
contributed mightily to the restoration of her 
liberties. 



CHAPTER XV 
Life on the Tejon Rancho 

Beale Resigns as Surveyor-General and Retires to Tejon — 
Purchases More Land from Absentee Landlords 
— Description of the Bakersfield Country when Kern 
County was a Wilderness — The Spring, the Fig Trees 
and the Live Oaks — A Rodeo — Robber Bands — Near- 
est Justice One Hundred and Fifty Miles Away! — 
Sale of Sheep in San Francisco — Mexicans who Panned 
for Gold before the Forty-niners — Lincoln and Beale 
Anecdotes — "Monarch of All He Surveys" — Charies 
Nordhoff 's Visit to Tejon — Description of Life There 
— His Praise of What General Beale had Accom- 
plished — Kit Carson's Ride by Joaqmn Miller — Beale 
Falls Foul of the Poet — Sad Scenes on the Rancho. 

WHEN the Civil War was over General 
Beale sent in his resignation as surveyor- 
general and retired to the Tejon Rancho. 
Here he spent much, indeed most of his time imtil 
well on to the end of his life when, deeply interested 
as he always was in the political questions of the 
day, his annual visits to Chester, Pennsylvania, 
and to the National Capital were greatly prolonged. 
The Tejon lands were purchased by General 

Beale from Mexicans and Spaniards, who lived in 

272 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 273 

Los Angeles, and who took very good care never to 
go near the enormous land grants which they had 
heired. General Beale was accustomed to relate 
with considerable humor that he often had to con- 
vince these absentee landlords that they were 
legally possessed of the land before inducing them 
to sell. While in comparison with the recognized 
value of Kern County lands to-day the prices 
paid for these grants seem merely nominal, the 
vendors were delighted, regarding naturally the 
purchase money for something they did not well 
know they owned as so much gold picked up by 
the roadside. 

There was a deserted fort on the place, the lands 
were unoccupied, and no one passed that way ex- 
cept an occasional detachment of troops, changing 
post, and now and again a roving band of Indians 
on some predatory excursion. However, the place 
appealed to General Beale as had no other spot he 
had come upon in his many travels, and here 
actually and not figuratively he pitched his tent 
and began to prepare with what philosophy he 
could summon for those long years which overtake 
even the most nimble traveller. 

The Tejon Rancho rose five hundred feet above 
the present town of Bakersfield, and enjoyed, as 
General Beale once wrote to an envious friend 
summering on the Potomac fiats, "a refreshing 
atmosphere of perpetual spring which never 
becomes close summer." 

Here the wanderer camped by his own spring 
18 



274 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

and planted his own fig trees. Not indeed that 
shade was wanting. It was perhaps the wide- 
spreading umbrageous live oaks that had first 
chained his wandering fancy. One of these pri- 
meval forest trees, as the General satisfied himself, 
not by rule of thimib but by the careful surveying 
in which he delighted, covered with its pendent 
branches a circumference of two hundred feet. 

Some three hundred Indian herders, or rather 
Indians who became herders, the same soft-spoken 
but uneasy fellows who had apparently driven the 
previous owners to seek refuge in the towns, lived 
in an adobe village at the Monte near the entrance 
to the Tejon Canyon. 

Some idea of the life on the ranch in these early 
days is given in the following letter of General 
Beale to his children who were then in the East on 
a visit. 

Rancho de la Liebre, May 3, 1865. 
My dear Children : 

The past few days have been of such excessive labor 
that I could not fulfil my intention, as promised in my 
letter to your dear Mother, of writing the day after to you. 
On the first of May I rode from noon until six o'clock, 
forty-five miles. Then from that time until night worked 
anxiously and hard on the rodeo ground with from five to 
sevdfi thousand head of cattle parting out five hundred for 
market. Unfortunately in putting them in the corral for 
the night they became alarmed and many escaped, which 
gave me all the next day to collect again, so that it was 
noon to-day before I could start Mr. Hudson on the road 
with them, and after seeing him ten miles on the way, rode 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 275 

back and threw myself perfectly exhausted on the bed, and 
went to sleep, and have just now awakened. A good bath 
has greatly refreshed me. 

The country I am sorry to say is in a very disturbed 
condition, — robbers swarm over it in bands of ten to thirty, 
and only to-day some fifty soldiers stopped here who were 
looking for a large party of secessionists and thieves who 
had stolen from my Rancho, at the Tejon, a large herd of 
one of my neighbor's horses, who had just collected them to 
gather his cattle with. But the soldiers will not catch them 
or distinguish themselves in any way under their thick- 
headed General McDowell. The whole countryside here 
has never before been in such a horrible condition, even this 
lawless region where our nearest Justice of the Peace is 
a hundred and fifty miles off! So far they have not robbed 
me, but my turn may come, and when it does I shall defend 
my property as long as I have life. Our house is well pro- 
vided with arms and my people faithful and attached so 
that I feel prepared and secure. 

In my last letter to your dear Mother I told of my sale 
of sheep at San Francisco. I must now tell you of what 
befell my shepherd on his return. He was encamped on 
the shores of the great Tulare Lake, and for protection 
against the wind had made his camp some considerable 
distance within the tall and exuberant growth of flags and 
reeds twice as high as one's head, which we call ttde. This 
tule is frequently fired by the Indians to scare out the 
game, which seek its shelter from pursuit or natural inclina- 
tion for such localities, and at such times ill betide the 
unfortunate who cannot escape the flames. In that long 
journey of mine alone and on foot through them, I found 
the calcined bones of some unhappy wretch who had been 
overtaken in them and perished miserably in this manner. 
Well, to go on with my story. 

About midnight the shepherd lying wrapped in his 
blankets and fast asleep, was roused by his dog jumping 



276 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

vehemently on his breast, and barking violently and tearing 
at the blanket which covered him. At first he thought it 
was sunrise, it was so bright around him, and that the dog 
was mad, but the instant the faithful brute (it hurts my 
feelings and jars upon me to call such a noble animal brute, 
while assassins and murderers escape that reproachful term 
and are called men) found his master was thoroughly 
awakened, he fled with a howl directly for the open land 
beyond the tule, and at the same instant the shepherd 
became aware that the devouring flame was upon him. He 
had barely time, a little scorched, to escape with life and 
lost only his camp. 

The General kept open house at all times at 
Tejon according to the Calif omian custom, whether 
he was in residence or not. He would talk to all 
comers concerning his companions, the Argonauts, 
of Stockton, of Carson and of Fremont, Sloat 
and Kearny. As to his own exploits he was 
modest and non-committal. Late in the seventies 
however one of the San Francisco papers awoke 
to the fact that the pioneers were dying and that 
it was high time that something, at least, of what 
they knew should be committed to paper. So a 
most expert questioner was sent to Antelope Valley 
and we are indebted to him for information 
which has escaped other chroniclers. 

"When in 1857 I came from Little Salt Lake in Utah via 
Amargosa, " said the General, "and struck this valley at 
Big Rock, I travelled West to Tejon Pass along the foothills 
and was as you can imagine highly impressed with the 
country. There was considerable grass and wild game but 
not a single human being did we see. At Elizabeth Lake 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 277 

the ducks and geese were so thick that I killed three ducks 
with one shot of my rifle. We did not have shot guns then. " 
"My attention," continued the General, "was first 
called to this ranch, the first land sold in the Antelope 
Valley since the conquest, by a curious incident which was 
not without influence upon the course of my life. I chanced 
to enter the U. S. Court House in Monterey while a Mexican 
witness was being examined. He was a man whom the 
owners of the Liebre Rancho had living there. It was then 
held though afterwards discarded, " interjected the General, 
"that to make a Spanish grant good there had to be occu- 
pancy." "I was panning out gold on the San Felipe 
mountain, " asserted the Mexican witness and the watching 
lawyer thought he had caught him in a falsehood 
but as a matter of fact the Mexican succeeded in prov- 
ing that he had panned gold south of the Liebre years 
before the official discovery of gold. "I bought this 
forty thousand acre tract and started to raise cattle. 
In those days my nearest neighbors were at Visalia on 
one side and at Los Angeles on the other." From 
Liebre, the correspondent rode with the General back to 
his usual residence at Tejon. Together they traversed 
several other tracts of land which the General had pur- 
chased and which taken in the aggregate made an estate 
half as large as the state of Rhode Island. They met 
fifteen thousand cattle on the way and five hundred horses 
and they spent the evening at Tejon. "It was crisp and 
cool," writes the correspondent, "and we sat by the open 
fire-place with a rousing fire which made the spacious room 
in the great adobe house cheerful with its glow." 

A witty though absolutely groundless story is 
told about Lincoln and General Beale, and the 
latter' s great landed possessions. Lincoln is re- 
ported as saying that he could not reappoint Beale 



278 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

as surveyor- general because "he became monarch 
of all he surveyed." 

As a matter of fact General Beale, to the 
amusement of many of his friends who have since 
died poor, purchased for cash all the land in 
California of which he died possessed, and the 
purchases were made long before he became 
surveyor- general. While Beale only paid five 
cents an acre for much of this land, this was five 
cents an acre more than most people at the time 
thought it was worth, and it was well known that 
for years no white man could be paid to live on 
the place during the General's frequent absences 
for fear of marauding Indians and white outlaws. 

General Beale enjoyed the "surveying story," 
as he called it, as well as any one else, but once 
he said, "Some day the archives of our country 
will tell why Lincoln made me Surveyor- General. 
It had nothing to do with rod or chain, but 
much to do with the metes and bounds of the 
Union." 

Charles Nordhoff , the celebrated writer and jour- 
nalist, visited the Pacific Coast in 1872 and dedi- 
cated the resulting book of travel, as had Bayard 
Taylor twenty-three years before, to General Beale, 
"in memory of the pleasant days at Tejon." To 
this brilliant writer we are indebted for many 
interesting sidelights upon the subject of this 
narrative and upon the work which General Beale 
accomplished both as pathfinder and road-builder 
to the Pacific and as a vigorous and efficient citizen 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 279 

of the great commonwealth he lived to see grow 
up on the Pacific slope. 

Our host [writes Nordhoff] was a sparkling combination 
of scholar, gentleman and Indian fighter, the companion 
and friend of Kit Carson in other days, the surveyor of 
trans-continental railways and wagon roads and the owner 
to-day of what seems to me the most magnificent estate in a 
single hand in America. 

[Again he writes] The Rancho from which I write, the 
Tejon as it is called, the home of Gen. Beale, contains 
nearly two hundred thousand acres and lies at the junction 
of the Sierra Nevada with the Coast Range. These two 
mountain ranges bend around toward each other here in a 
vast sweep and form the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley. 
They do not quite meet. The Tejon Pass, a narrow defile, 
separates them and gives egress from the Valley into the 
Los Angeles country. 

You may ride for eighty miles on the county road upon 
this great estate. It supports this year over one hundred 
thousand sheep; and it has a peasantry of its own about 
whom I shall tell you something presently. The Tejon is 
devoted to sheep and here I saw the operation of shearing ; 
eight or nine weeks are required to shear the whole flock, as 
well as the various details of the management of a California 
sheep farm. 

What we call at home a flock is in California called a band 
of sheep. These bands consist usually of from 1300 to 
2000 sheep and each band is in the charge of a shepherd. 

" This country is quiet now," said the General one evening 
in a reminiscent mood, "but when I first came into it it 
contained some rough people. The head of the famous 
robber Joaquin Murieta and the hand of his lieutenant, 
'Three-fingered' Jack, were brought into my camp but a 
few hours after those two scoundrels were shot. Jack 
Powers and his gang used to herd their bands of stolen 



28o Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

horses on my ranch as they drove them through the coun- 
try; and Jack once kindly came to tell me that he would 
kill the first man of his gang that took anything from me. 
Mason and Henry, the worst of all the road agents in this 
state, used to go through Kern County waylaying and rob- 
bing ; and in those days a man had to be careftd not only of 
his money but of his Hfe." 

Of course the sheep are scattered over many miles of ter- 
ritory, but each band has a limited range, defined somewhat 
by the vicinity of water, and it is customary in California 
to drive them every night into a corral or inclosure usually 
fenced with brush and with a narrow entrance. This corral 
is near water and the sheep drink at morning and evening. 
The shepherd sleeps near b3^ in a hut, or, in the mountainous 
part of the Tejon Rancho, in a tepestra. The corral is to keep 
the sheep together, and in a measure protect them against 
the attacks of wild beasts, which, curiously enough are too 
cowardly to venture after dark inside of even a low fence. 
The tepestra is to protect the shepherd himself against the 
attacks of grizzly bears which are still abundant in the 
mountains, especially in the Coast Range. 

The tepestra is a platform about 12 feet high, built upon 
stout poles solidly set into the groimd. On this platform 
the shepherd sleeps, in the mountains, at the entrance to 
the corral; the grizzly bear cannot climb a pole, though he 
can get up a tree large enough to give his claws a hold. It 
is, I believe, not infrequent for a grizzly to stand up at the 
side of a tepestra at night and try to rouse the shepherd. 
But all the men are armed with guns which they carry day 
and night. 

The grizzly does not usually attack sheep. The Califor- 
nia lion, a very strong but cowardly beast, the wildcat, the 
fox and the coyote, are the sheep's enemies. The last 
named is easily poisoned with meal which has strychnine 
powdered over it. The others are hunted when they 
become troublesome, and as the lion upon the slightest 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 281 

alarm will take to a tree, and will run even from a small dog, 
it is not accounted a very troublesome beast. 

Indians, Spaniards, Chinese, and some Scotchmen, serve 
as shepherds in California. The last are thought the best, 
and the Chinese make very faithful shepherds, if they are 
properly and carefully trained. They are apt to herd the 
sheep too closely together at first. Dogs I have found but 
little used in the sheep ranches I have seen. They are not 
often thoroughly trained, and where they are neglected be- 
come a nuisance. Of course the shepherds have to be sup- 
plied at stated intervals with food. They usually receive 
a week's rations which they cook for themselves. 

At the Tejon there are two supply stations, and every 
morning donkeys and mules were sent out with food to 
some distant shepherds. The ration-masters count the 
sheep as they deHver the rations, and thus all the sheep are 
counted once a week and if any sheep are missing they 
must be accounted for. The shepherd is allowed to kill a 
sheep once in so many days but he must keep the pelt which 
is valuable. Above the ration-masters are the major- 
domos. Each of these has charge of a certain number of 
bands; on a smaller estate there is usually but one major- 
domo. It is his duty to see that the shepherds are compe- 
tent ; that new pasturage is ready when a band has need for 
it ; to see that the corrals are in good order ; to provide extra 
hands at lambing time; to examine the sheep, to keep out 
scab which is almost the only disease sheep are subject to 
in this State; and to give out the rations for distribution. 

On such an estate as the Tejon there is finally a general 
superintendent and a bookkeeper and a storekeeper, for 
here in the wilderness a supply of goods of various kinds 
must be kept up for the use of the people. A blacksmith, 
teamsters, plowmen, gardeners and house servants make up 
the complement of the Tejon's company. The gardeners 
and servants are Chinese as they usually are in this State, 
and very good men they arc — civil, obliging, and competent. 



282 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Besides these numbers fed from the home place there 
are on this estate about 300 Indians, who have been allowed 
to fence in small tracts of land, on which they raise barley 
and other provisions, and in some cases plant fruit trees and 
vines. They form the peasantry of whom I spoke above, 
and are a happy, tolerably thrifty, and very comfortable 
people. Their surplus produce is purchased by the super- 
intendent ; when their labor is used they are paid ; and they 
all have horses which pasture on the general fields. They 
have learned how to plow, shear sheep, and perform some 
other useful labor. 

Now these Indians came to the Tejon naked, except a 
breech clout, feeding miserably on grasshoppers, worms 
and acorns, ignorant, savage nomads. They were first 
brought here when a part of this rancho was used by the 
Government as an Indian Reservation. Gen. Beale, the 
present owner of the Tejon, was then Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs in this State, and he has seen these people 
emerge from a condition of absolute ijarbarism and wretched- 
ness into a degree of comfort and prosperity greater than 
that enjoyed by the majority of Irish peasants; they have 
abandoned their nomadic habits, have built neat and com- 
fortable houses and fenced in ground which they cultivate. 
Their women dress neatly and understand how to cook food. 
The men earn money as sheep shearers. In some places 
vineyards and fruit trees have been brought by them to a 
bearing condition. In short these human beings were sav- 
ages, and are — well, they are as civilized as a good many 
who come in emigrant ships from Europe to New York. 

And all this has been accomplished under the eye and by 
the careful and kindly management of the owner of the 
Tejon Rancho. It seemed a great thing for any man to 
achieve, and certainly these people compared in every way 
favorably with a similar class whom I saw on the Tula 
River Indian Reservation, living at the expense of the 
Government, idle, gambHng, lounging, evil-eyed and good 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 283 

for nothing. If the Tule River Reservation be abandoned, 
the Government would save a handsome sum of money, and 
the farmers would find a useful laboring force, where now 
there are three or four hundred idle vagabonds, who when 
they do go out to work, as some of them do, still receive 
rations and clothing from the Government, and use their 
own earnings for gambHng and debauchery. 

Gen. Beale's Indians have been raised to a far better 
condition by his own private efforts, than the Reservation 
Indians after years of expensive support from the Govern- 
ment. They shear all the Tejon sheep, and are thus, of 
course, of value to the estate, and they are useful in many 
other ways. Unluckily their language is Spanish. It 
seemed to me a pity that when they had to learn a new 
language, English had not been taught them. 

The Tehatchapie Pass by which the Southern Pacific 
railroad is to pass from Bakersfield into the Mohave Plain 
is part of the Tejon Rancho, and when I came to drive into 
that great plain, which is just now the home of thousands of 
antelopes, I saw another fertile region, only awaiting the 
railroad to be "prospected" by settlers. The Mohave 
Plains have the name of being uninhabitable, but they 
furnish abundant pasturage for antelopes and deer. They 
lack running streams of water; but a German, who is the 
first settler, has dug a well, and found water without going 
far down, and I saw on the plain a fine field of barley almost 
ready for harvesting, which showed the quality of the soil. 
Stretching far into the great uninhabited plain is a singular 
and picturesque mountain range, called the "Lost Moun- 
tains" which relieves the dreary desolation of a great level, 
and promises, in its canyons, springs and streams, pleasant 
homes for the future settler when the railroad opens this 
great uninhabited tract. 

Sometimes, though not often, as the Patron was 
not a leisurely rancher and his days were filled 



284 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

with toil, General Beale would lay down the 
shears and take up the pen, which he generally 
used as a cudgel upon one or another of the Sierra 
poets who were beginning to write with, as he 
thought, little or no regard for historical accuracy, 
of the days of the pioneers. The most vigorous, 
sincere, and heartfelt of these articles the General 
wrote in defence of his old friend and comrade, Kit 
Carson, whose life had inspired the then youthful 
Joaquin Miller to a soaring flight with Pegasus. 

The General's rejoinder to the Poet of the 
Sierras reads: 

Kit Carson's Ride 

Under this title there comes to us in Harper's Weekly, a 
very long poem by one Joaquin Miller, of California. As 
well as we can make it out, it seems to be an ugly cross of 
Browning on Swinburne, and ought to be put in a moral 
glass bottle, labelled "Poison," put on a high shelf in the 
cupboard out of the reach of children, and forgotten. 

It is rarely that the license allowed to poets has been more 
thoroughly abused than in the ill-written lines which are 
contained in the article that heads this notice. As a rule in 
poetry when fact is departed from, it has always been to 
exaggerate the virtues of a departed hero, but never to 
slander him by rendering his picture ridiculous, much less 
indecent, and as we recall the modest, earnest, refined 
simplicity of Carson, and compare it with the frenzied and 
licentious buffoon presented in the poem and picture 
referred to, we cannot but regret that the scalp of Joaquin 
had not been counted among the "coups " of that redoubted 
knight of the prairies and mountains. How far the descend- 
ants of that upright and noble man might be justified in 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 285 

sueing the author for defamation of character in a city 
court, we do not know, but are sure in the courts of that 
generous and active Judge Lynch, away off in the Rockies, 
where Kit's fame is yet cherished by many a hardy pioneer, 
we might safely count on "Exemplary damages" — some- 
thing that would make his hair stand on end. 

What an abuse of all common sense is such stuff — as 
though a half-witted maudlin had read " How the news was 
carried to Ghent, " and then slept off the fumes of a debauch 
dreaming of " Chastelard. " And this is a representative 
poet! That virtuous gentlewoman, Dame Quickly, says of 
the famous Pistol: 

"He a captain! Hang him rogue! He lives upon 
mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. A captain ! These 
villains will make the word ' captain ' as odious as the word 
'occupy,' which was an excellent good word before it 
was ill-sorted. Therefore Captains had need look to it." 

Carson was a man cleanly of mind, body and speech, and 
by no manner of means a border ruffian. He had no gift 
of swearing. The only oath I ever heard him use, was that 
of William the Conqueror, which I had once read him out of 
a stray volume of Tristram Shandy. On this occasion, he 
drew a long single-barrelled pistol (old Constable's make), 
which Fremont had given me, and I to Kit, for we had no 
"gold mounted Colt's true companions for years" in those 
simple-minded days, and with slow, deadly speech, which 
carried the sense of imminent mischief in it, said to one who 
was in the act of a cowardly wrong upon a sick man, "Ser- 
geant, drop that knife, or 'by the Splendor of God,' I '11 
blow your heart out. " 

He had not the advantages of education, but was wise as 
the beaver, and of great dignity and simplicity of character, 
and not given to the least vulgarity of thought or expression 
nor would he tolerate it in those about him. 

It was not enough that this poor "metre balladmonger, " 
has talked of scenes of which he knows nothing, and has 



286 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

misplaced and misnamed all mountain craft, and the 
chronology and geography, weapons, and ranges of tribes 
of Indians and the spirit of the times whereof he speaks. 
It is not enough that he puts into the mouth of a calm, 
dignified, sweet nature, such words of bosh as would make a 
love-sick and idiotic ape quite ashamed of himself, but he 
slanders a character as chivalrous as that of a knight of 
romance, by making him escape on his lady love's horse 
from a danger in which she is left to perish. . . . 

General Beale, after a further severe scoring of 
the poet and his lines, pays this tribute to his old 
friend : 

Dear old Kit. Not such as the poet paints you do I 
recall the man I loved. Looking back through the misty 
years, I see a man Tasso, if you had lived in an earlier age, 
would have placed by the side of Godfrey and made the 
companion of Tancred and Rinaldo. A man pure, very 
pure, in his nature — not given to lustful ways, but calm, 
serious and sweet of temper; a man of very moderate 
stature, but broad fronted and elastic, yet by no means 
robust of frame though gifted \vith immense endurance and 
nerves of steel. A head quite remarkable for its full size 
and very noble forehead, quiet, thoughtfid blue eyes, and 
yellow hair, a very strong jaw and a face dished like an 
Arab horse, that made a man who had never seen him before 
look at him again with the thought that he would "do to 
tie to." Arms rather long, and thin strong flanks, with 
slightly bandy legs. 

This was the outward shape, which enclosed a spirit as 
high and daring and as noble as ever tenanted the body of a 
man. No man to take a woman's horse because it was 
faster than his own and leave her to the prairie fire, while he 
galloped off to twaddle in tumid bosh over her marvellous 
eyes. What an abuse of common sense is such stuff! 



Life on the Tejon Rancho 287 

Oh, Kit, my heart beats quicker, even now, when I think 
of the time, twenty-five years ago, when I lay on the burn- 
ing sands of the great desert, under a mesquite bush, where 
you had, tenderly as a woman would have put her first 
bom, laid me, sore from wounds and fever, on your only 
blanket. I see the dim lake of waterless mirage. I see the 
waving sands ripple with the faint hot breeze around us and 
break upon our scattered saddles. I see the poor mules 
famishing of thirst, with their tucked flanks and dim eyes, 
and hear their sad, plaintive cry go up out of the wilderness 
for help. I see the men dogged and resolute or despondent, 
standing around or seeking such shelter as a saddle blanket 
thrown over a gun afforded. 

Without a thought of ever seeing water again, you poured 
upon my fevered lips the last drop in camp from your 
canteen. Oh, Kit, I think again of afterwards, on bloody 
Gila, where we fought all day and travelled all night, with 
each man his bit of mule meat and no other food, and when 
worn from a hurt I could go no further, I begged you to 
leave me and save yourself. I see you leaning on that long 
Hawkins gun of yours (mine now) and looking out of those 
clear blue eyes at me with a surprised reproach as one who 
takes an insult from a friend. And I remember when we 
lay side by side on the bloody battle-field all night, when 
you mourned like a woman and would not be comforted, not 
for those who had fallen, but for the sad hearts of women at 
home when the sad tale would be told; and I remember 
another night when we passed side by side in the midst of 
an enemy's camp when discovery was death and you would 
not take a mean advantage of a sleeping foe. Then you 
were with Fremont and afterward at the solitary desert 
spring of Archilete, when you all stood around shocked at 
the horrid spectacle of slaughter which met your eyes. A 
whole family done to death by Indians. Fremont asked, 
"Who will follow these wretches and strike them in their 
camp?" It was you, old Kit, and Alexis Godey who took 



288 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the trail ; a long and weary hundred and twenty-five miles, 
you followed that bloody band. You two attacked in broad 
daylight a hundred. Killed many for which you brought 
back our grizzly mountain vouchers and recovered every 
stolen horse for the sole survivor, a little boy. And this 
you did in pity for the women who had been slain. Oh ! wise 
of counsel, strong of arm, brave of heart, and gentle of 
nature how bitterly you have been maligned/ 

But even at the Tejon it was not always sunshine 
as the following characteristic letters of the Gen- 
eral to Mrs. Beale show: 

Tejon Ranchos, 
Tejon, Cal., Sunday, October 17, 1886. 

My dearest Wife : 

This has been the saddest day I ever passed on the 
Rancho. 

When I got here, as soon as I had washed off the dust, I 
went to see my old friend Chico. He knew I was coming 

'Kennett Square, Penna. 
Sunday, Aug. 27th, 1871. 
My dear Beale: 

Thank you heartily for writing, as well as for sending to me, your 
defence of Kit Carson, and scarification of that vulgar fraud, Joaquin 
Miller! I am very glad to have my own immediate impression con- 
firmed — that the fellow really knows nothing about the life he under- 
takes to describe. And this is the "great American poet" of the English 
library journals! Why, I 'd undertake to write a volume of better and 
truer "songs of the Sierras" in three weeks! We authors have really 
fallen in evil days, when such stuff passes for poetry. However, 
patience is my watchword; we have but to wait and see these fictitious 
reputations go down as fast as they go up. 

How are you, and what are your plans? Can we not meet and have 
an Olympian evening together, somewhere, soon? I am more depend- 
ent on circumstances than you are, but I can still make them bend a little, 
for the sake of an old friend. Remember me kindly to all your family. 

Ever aflfectionately, 

Bayard Taylor. 






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Life on the Tejon Rancho 289 

and had been waiting for me all day most anxiously. When 
I came into the room he struggled to put his arms around my 
neck but was too weak and I had to raise his hands up to my 
shoulders. He looked so pleased for a moment, but the 
excitement of my coming soon left him and he began to 
sink rapidly. I sat at his bed-side with his hands in mine 
until they stiffened in Death. 

Just before I came he asked, " Has not the Patron come 
yet — I hear a horse, go to the door and see." It proved to 
be my horse but poor dear old fellow it seemed as if he was 
only holding on to life until I came to close those faithful 
eyes which had watched my interests so carefully for so 
many years. Jimmy Rosemire told me this morning that 
in speaking to him a few days ago of his friends he said, 
" I have no friend and do not want any but my Patron, and 
his interests are all the business I have in life." 

How we shall do without his wise counsel and knowledge 
I do not know. I feel inexpressibly sad. He has been so 
true and faithful these many long years. The Tejon without 
him will never be the same to me. 

I have fixed Tuesday for his burial and the place at the 
head of the flower garden. 

A priest will come for the occasion and everybody includ- 
ing all the Indians will attend. 

Myself and Alex. Godey, Pogson and Lopez will act as 
pall-bearers. 

Good night, my dear wife, 

Your devoted husband, 

E. F. Beale. 

Tejon Ranchos, 
Tejon, Cal., October 20, 1886. 

My dearest Wife : 

We buried my old friend Chico yesterday. 

It was the most impressive funeral I have ever seen. I 
had sent to Bakersfield for a handsome coffin in which he 



290 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

was laid at his house. The house I had built for him is 
about a mile from here and there the procession formed. 

All work was suspended on the place. Half way from 
his house I met the procession, accompanied by Pogson and 
Godey. The coffin was borne by the Vaqueros who reHeved 
each other at intervals. In front was carried in the arms of 
one of our men his eldest child. All the Indians and men 
followed chanting in Spanish the burial service — the men 
one verse and the women another. 

I never heard anything so solemn and sweet as this chant. 
When the body arrived at the house it was placed in the 
parlor, where it was permitted to all, Indians and white 
people, to come and look at him for the last time. 

The flower garden was full of roses and other beautiful 
flowers which soon filled the coffin. Here at intervals the 
funeral songs and hymns of the Catholic Church were sung 
as before — the women and men's voices in alternate verses. 

At eleven the priest arrived. 

Then I took the right hand side of the coffin, and Godey 
the left — the middle was taken by Lopez on one side and 
Don Chico Lopez on the other, and the other end Pogson 
on the right and Rosemire on the left, and we bore him to 
his grave at the upper end of the flower garden. 

The priest preached a sermon — very appropriate and 
performed the full service of the Church and all was 
over. 

I am just going off with Pogson for the day and will write 
at every opportunity. 

Your devoted husband, 

E. F. B. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Last Years 

General Beale Purchases the Decatur House — Its Dis- 
tinguished Occupants and Ghost Story — Beale's Politi- 
cal Activity — His Untiring Efforts to Help the Negro 
— Appointed by Grant Minister to Austria — News- 
paper Comment in California — A Bill of Sale from 
Slavery Days — Awkward Diplomatic Situation — The 
Emperor and Count Andrassy — Friendship of Grant 
and Beale — Their Correspondence Published — Arthur 
Fails to Appoint Beale Secretary of the Navy — Grant's 
Resentment — Beale Ends the Grant-Blaine Feud — 
Last Days — Beale's Death — Scenes in Washington 
and on the Tejon Rancho. 

GENERAL BEALE'S Washington residence, 
which he purchased shortly after the close 
of the war, was the Decatur mansion on 
Lafayette Square and within a stone's throw of the 
White House. This mansion, which has played an 
important if silent part in the life of the National 
Capital, was designed by Latrobe, one of the archi- 
tects of the Capitol, and built by Commodore 
Decatur, the hero of the Algerine War, in the early 
years of the last century, and here, in the present 

library, it is said, Decatur died from the wound 

291 



292 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

which he received in his duel with Commodore 
Barron. ' 

Martin Van Buren lived here when elected 
President, and from here he removed into the 
Executive Mansion. Henry Clay, Vice-President 
George M. Dallas, and the British and Russian 
Embassies were among its distinguished occupants 
before the house passed into Gen. Beale's posses- 
sion. Its exterior is of an old-fashioned plan — a 
plain three- storied structure of painted brick, 
without ornamentation of any kind, but with a 
dignity and distinction very difficult to copy or 
to reproduce, as many distinguished Washington 
architects have learned to their cost and to the 
regret of their clients. 

The floor of the ball-room, which is on the second 
floor, is made of California woods, of, it is said, 
twenty-two thousand pieces, in the centre being a 
beautifully inlaid reproduction of the arms of Cali- 

' Another correspondent, this time an old Washingtonian, writes as 
follows concerning the Decatur-Beale house, another version of an 
historic incident. 

" Mortally wounded by Barron, Commodore Decatur was borne home 
to his wife and died in the small south-wing room on the ground floor. 
Of course that room is haunted, and if rumor is to be believed it is not 
alone the impressionable negro servants who have seen the figure of the 
Commodore prowhng about at ghostly hours, with ghastly face and 
blood-streaming wound, enveloped in the inevitable blue-luminous, 
terror-inspiring mist. " 

Many tributes are also paid in all chronicles of Washington life to 
the dignity and splendor of this historic mansion during the years 
immediately before the war, when it was occupied by Judah P. Ben- 
jamin, then Senator from Louisiana, and afterwards Attorney-General 
and Secretary of State of the Southern Confederacy." — From the 
Beale papers. 



Last Years 293 

fomia. The house was so spacious and furnished in 
such excellent taste that it never seemed crowded 
even when all Washington was there at one of 
Mrs. Beale's receptions, nor yet encumbered by 
the number of historic relics which it contained, 
surpassing as they did in their number and value 
the resoiu"ces of several of Washington's museums. 
Among the most notable of these historic relics 
was a massive silver urn presented by the mer- 
chants of London to Captain Thomas Truxtim of 
the United States frigate Constellation for the 
capture of the French frigate Insurgente, 44 gtms, 
in the West Indies in 1799. 

They were, it must be admitted, very forgiving, 
these London merchants and during the French 
War, as the great urn testifies, they delighted to 
honor a man whom a few years before, while their 
shipping suffered from his roving activity, they had 
denotinced as a pirate. Then there were in strange 
comers and nooks, which General Beale would 
only reveal and explore with his yotmg son's boy 
friends, medals to Truxtun and to George Beale 
for his gallantry in the fight with Macdonough on 
the Lake, and lances — ^fearful and awe-inspiring 
weapons were these captured from the Mexican- 
Calif omian cavalry at the battle of San Pasqual, 
and how interesting this or that lance was because 
it had lodged in the thigh or the breast of those 
paladins of the plains, Godey or Kit Carson! 

From 1870 on, when he began to spend at least six 
months of the year in the Decatur house. General 



294 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

Beale exerted great influence politically and socially 
in the National Capital. He was elected President of 
the National Republican League, and never spared 
his time or his money in furthering the cause of 
good government. In helping upward the eman- 
cipated negro he was more useftd and more sincere 
than many a man whose name is enshrined in the 
Walhalla of the Abolition cause. He rarely spoke 
at the political meetings of his party and of his 
friends; for this purpose there were speakers in 
plenty and to spare, but knowing the reluctance of 
many white leaders of opinion to speak at the 
meetings of colored men at this period he never 
refused a call of this description, although they 
came frequently and compelled journeys to out-of- 
the-way places. 

From his earliest years Beale had strong opinions 
on the slavery question and did what he cotild to 
bring about a settlement of the vexed question, a 
legal settlement if possible, but in any event a 
settlement. He in early life liberated many slaves 
and among his papers is a bill of sale ' for a negro 

' United States of North America, 
State of Texas, 
Calhoun County, 

June 4, 1857. 
We, Josiah W. Baldridge, Daniel P. Sparks, and Joseph H. Baldridge, 
former partners and now in liquidation, known and designated under 
the style and firm name of Baldridge, Sparks & Co., have this day sold, 
and by these presents, bargain, sell, and convey unto Edward F. Beale, 
our negro man named Jourdan, of yellow or copper color, supposed to be 
from twenty-five to thirty years of age, for and in consideration of the 
sum of one thousand five hundred dollars to us in hand paid by the said 
Edward F. Beale, the receipt of which is now acknowledged. And the 



Last Years 295 

in Texas whom he learned was about to be sold into 
the hands of a cruel task-master, a New England 
man, as so many such people were. Beale pur- 
chased the slave and set him free, and went on his 
way rejoicing that he should have been given the 
opportunity of bringing happiness to a fellow-being. 

At all times and particularly in the early 'sev- 
enties, Beale was an ardent and indefatigable 
student of the profession which he had left years 
before with so much reluctance. He knew the un- 
satisfactory condition of our Navy, as far as the 
ships were concerned, and worked and wrote in the 
reviews on the subject in the hope of bringing home 
to Congress and the people an appreciation of otir 
national weakness. 

In 1 876 came unexpectedly Beale's appointment 
as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 
tiary to Austria-Hungary. Ever since the execu- 
tion of the Emperor Maximilian, by Juarez, our 
relations with the reigning house and with the 
government of the Dual Monarchy had been of a 
perfunctory rather than of a cordial character, and 
while this criticism most certainly does not apply to 
General Beale's immediate predecessor, the Hon. 

said Baldridge, Sparks & Co. covenant and agree with the said E. F. 
Beale that said boy is healthy, sensible, and a slave. We also guarantee 
the title to the said E. F. Beale free from all incumbrance or claims of 
every kind or description whatever. Claiming through us. Witness 
our hands and scrolls for seals this day and date above written. 

On the back of this document Beale wrote: 

"I bought the slave referred to within and gave him his freedom." 

E. F. B.— Beale papers. 



296 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

John Jay, so distinguished in letters and in diplo- 
macy, it is quite true that many of the occupants 
of this important post in the service had been 
obscure men and many of them unfit for the per- 
formance of the duties which were incumbent 
upon them. 

When General Beale was selected by General 
Grant for the Austrian Mission the appointment 
was received with much enthusiasm in California. 
The San Francisco News-Letter voiced as follows 
the sentiment which prevailed in the State : 

The news of Ned Beale's appointment to be Minister to 
Austria, succeeding Mr. John Jay, is as refreshing as a 
shower of rain — for if ever there was a typical and represen- 
tative Californian, Ned Beale is he. Setting out in life a 
Lieutenant in the Navy, he had a chance to fight in the 
Territorial days and he fought like the devil. Appointed to 
look after the Arizona Indians at a time when Arizona 
Indians were at their best and meanest, he polished them 
off and taught them to stand around in such style that they 
have never been the same Indians since. 

Those were days when Indians were Indians, and their 
only use for a Commissioner was to scalp him on sight. In 
his Arizona administration Beale took bigger risks, showed 
more endurance, underwent more trying hardships than 
any other man whether in the army or out of it. He out- 
scouted any scout and out-rode any mail-rider, we had in 
the service. He showed himself an iron-man put up with 
steel springs and whalebone, and all this time be it noted 
he was only a youngster. 

Finally, the war came and Beale went Union and got 
thereby the Surveyor-Generalship of California. Ned 
Beale was no sentimentalist — not by the longest kind of 



Last Years 297 

odds. He was born with a head on his shoulders, was 
Edward, and he never laid it away in his trunk. 

No questions of great international impoitance 
arose between the two countries during General 
Beale's stay of a year in Austria, but nevertheless 
his mission gave him an opportunity to show 
diplomacy of a very high order. When General 
Beale's name was submitted to the Austrian 
Emperor by the State Department, according to 
diplomatic usage, the report upon his availability 
for the Austrian Mission, doubtless supplied by the 
Austrian Envoy in Washington whose acquaintance 
with Beale was of recent date, was most enthusi- 
astic. Later, however, when Beale had been 
officially accepted and indeed was on his way to his 
post, Ball-haus Platz, the Austrian Foreign Office, 
received information which admitted of no denial, 
and indeed none was ever attempted, that General 
Beale had been a strong sympathizer with and a 
valued supporter of the Juarez administration in 
Mexico, which, after the capture of Queretaro, had 
put to death the so-called Emperor Maximilian, 
the younger and best -beloved brother of that 
Emperor to whom Beale now found himself 
accredited. 

It was certainly an awkward situation and the 
way in which it was handled was most creditable 
to all concerned. Had not General Beale's name 
already been passed on favorably, it is certain that 
when the first news of his former relations with 
Juarez and the Mexican Liberal generals reached 



298 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the Foreign Office a polite but prompt refusal to 
accept the new envoy would have followed ; how- 
ever, the Emperor received General Beale appar- 
ently with great cordiality. Every honor was 
paid him that the most desired and most welcome 
envoy could have asked for, but it was soon evident 
that the Emperor did not propose cultivating close 
relations with the man whom he certainly regarded 
as the friend of his brother's murderers. After all 
the American Minister could transact his business 
at the Foreign Office. 

It was fortimate for Beale that at this — for him 
— awkward moment such an able and intelligent 
man as the famous Coimt Jules Andrassy presided 
over the Foreign Office of the Dual Monarchy. 
A few days after the reception at Court, Beale had 
his first serious conversation at the Foreign Office 
and Coimt Andrassy introduced the subject of 
Mexico. Perhaps the kindly Hungarian wished 
to give General Beale a quiet tip as to the reason 
of the frigid atmosphere into which chance and the 
careless methods of the American State Depart- 
ment had steered his bark. General Beale talked 
frankly about the matter as though it had not 
the slightest bearing upon his personal position. 
He explained what he knew about Mexico, and with 
equal frankness what he did not know. Andrassy 
was impressed and pleased. The next day he 
reported to the Emperor. "General Beale is the 
only man who has ever made the Mexican tragedy 
clear to me. You should speak with him," he 



Last Years 299 

said . A summons to a private breakfast at Schoen- 
brunn followed, and ever afterwards the Emperor 
admitted General Beale to his presence upon terms 
of friendship and even of intimacy. 

General Beale was always inclined to credit the 
dissipation of this diplomatic cloud to Count 
Andrassy's good will. Andrassy naturally loved 
conspirators. In early life, as a member of Kossuth's 
revolutionary government he had been condemned 
to death, and only saved himself by flight to Tur- 
key. In later life, when mellowed by the lessons 
of the passing years and with direct reference to 
Andrassy, the Emperor said: "It was fortunate for 
me that all my sentences of death were not carried 
out. I should have lost many valuable servants." 

When the year elapsed which was all that Gen- 
eral Beale felt he could give to the Government in 
view of his many and pressing interests at home, 
Mr. Fish was able to, and did, write the departing 
envoy, that he was leaving the relations of the two 
countries on a very different basis from that on 
which he had found them. 

In Scribner's Magazine for October, 191 1, extracts 
from General Grant's letters to General Beale, 
charming in their manly simplicity, were published 
with the following introductory note: 

These letters were written by Grant to his friend General 
Edward F. Beale at intervals from 1877, when Grant left 
Washington and went upon his travels, down to 1885; the 
last, indeed, was penned within a few weeks of the heroic 
end of the great commander at Mount McGregor. 



300 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

The letters are the living memorial of a friendship which 
began in California in the early fifties and which twenty- 
years later had a marked influence upon the course of 
national affairs. Grant had the gift of friendship, and his 
circle was not small ; but to the Washington of the seventies 
it was no secret that of all his personal friends the one he 
most admired, the one to whom he always listened (and 
then did as his own good sense dictated), was "Ned" Beale 
(a grandson of the gallant Truxtun), who with Stockton 
conquered California, who fought Kearny's guns in the 
desperate battle of San Pasqual, who gave up active service 
in the Civil War at Lincoln's request because the providen- 
tial President knew that Beale's presence in the debatable 
State would preserve it to the Union. Beale related that he 
first saw Grant in 1848 in the Casino on the Plaza of the 
City of Mexico where the officers used to gather during the 
American occupation. Beale was on his famous ride across 
Mexico, bringing the news of the conquest of California and 
the first specimens of the gold that had been newly discov- 
ered in the City of Mexico. He stopped for a few hours to 
change horses on his route to Vera Cruz. The friendship 
of Grant and Beale, however, really dates from 1853, when 
Grant's army career seemed closed, and Beale, having 
resigned from the navy that he might provide for his grow- 
ing family, was becoming interested in the wonderful 
development of the Golden State, which he foresaw like a 
prophet and by which he profited like a wise man. 

In these days, when Grant was unfortunate, Beale stood 
by his friend with both word and deed. They walked the 
Long Wharf together and ate their meals at the "What 
Cheer" House when San Francisco was as uncertain of its 
name as of its future. 

The value of these letters is enhanced by the fact that Grant 
was a reserved man and a somewhat reluctant correspond- 
ent ; to few if to any of his circle of intimates did he open his 
heart as he did to his old comrade and house-friend Beale. 



Last Years 301 

Beale while at home as well as abroad had con- 
tinued his naval studies. While in Vienna it was 
said of him that he would travel a thousand miles 
to avoid an idle function and twice that distance to 
visit an interesting navy yard or a stud farm. 
Outside of the Navy, and of course precedent if not 
the law makes the choice of a naval officer to head 
this branch of the Government impossible, there 
was perhaps at this time no one in the country so 
capable of beginning the reconstruction of the Navy 
that was now admittedly an imperative necessity, 
as General Beale, and shortly after Mr. Arthur 
became President General Grant urged Beale's ap- 
pointment as Secretary of the Navy most strenu- 
ously. However, the whole Congressional delegation 
from New England demanded the appointment for 
a New England man, Mr. Chandler, and in a diffi- 
cult situation and with evident reluctance, Presi- 
dent Arthur yielded to the political pressure which 
was exerted.' 

Whatever may have been Grant's feelings, 
General Beale was certainly not embittered. He 
remained the friend and adviser of the successive 
Secretaries of the Navy, from Chandler to Whitney 
and Herbert, and when the new Navy, as typified 

' Ben Perley Poor in his reminiscences, Sixty Years of the National 
Metropolis, says, p. 449: 

"President Arthur in his desire to administer his inherited duties 
impartially made himself enemies among those who should have been 
his friends — General Grant asked that his personal friend General 
Beale might be appointed Secretary of the Navy and he never forgave 
President Arthur for not complying with his request. " 



302 Edward Fitzgerald Beak 

by the White Squadron, put to sea, in it were em- 
bodied as many of the ideas of General Beale as 
of any other man. 

During the years of the famous feud between 
Blaine and Grant, General Beale made several 
attempts to bring them together for the good of the 
party and as he most sincerely thought for the good 
of the country. In 1883 the party managers urged 
upon Beale renewed attempts to bring about the 
long frustrated reconciliation, stating that they 
regarded it as a sine qua non to Republican success 
in 1884. 

General Badeau in Grant in Peace sheds some 
light upon these negotiations. To Badeau, Grant 
wrote in October, 1883: 

" I write because of your allusion to hearing a rumour that 
Blaine and I had formed a combination politically. You 
may deny that statement peremptorily. I have not seen 
Blaine to speak to him since a long time before the Conven- 
tion of 1880." Grant knew that I was anxious for him to 
take ground in favor of Blaine [continues Badeau]. Gen. 
Beale, who was an intimate friend, Senator Chaffee, the 
father-in-law of one of Grant's sons, and Elkins all desired 
the same result but were unable to bring it about at this 
time. 

However, Beale was undaunted, and at last suc- 
ceeded where others had failed. General Grant was 
staying in General Beale 's house and Blaine lived 
next door to him on Jackson Place. Only a month 
intervened before the election when, as the Beale 
papers reveal, Blaine wrote as follows to General 



Last Years 303 

Beale, a hasty note but of far-reaching importance : 
" My dear General: — It will give me great pleasure 
to call on General Grant at your house at any time 
you say." 

One cold October afternoon the interview took 
place in the historic drawing-room. The three 
party leaders sat around an open grate fire and 
the feud which had disrupted the Republican party, 
or probably only typified its disruption, was buried. 

The reconciliation, however, took place too late. 
In the last days of the campaign Grant and his 
adherents developed remarkable strength, and it 
was all loyally exerted in favor of Blaine, but in 
November the Plumed Knight went down in 
defeat. A new god had arisen in Israel, and his 
name was Grover Cleveland. 

Early in the spring of 1893 General Beale's physi- 
cal powers began to wane, while mentally he re- 
mained as active and alert as ever. On April 
22d the long expected event occurred and General 
Beale passed peacefully away. 

The press of the country recognized General 
Beale's death not only as that of a distinguished 
and remarkable personality, but as an event 
marking the close of an era. The day of the 
pathfinders was over, and the papers of the 
country without exception, from Sandy Hook to 
the Golden Gate, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio 
Grande, paid eloquent tribute to the man who in 
so many ways had played a distinguished part in 



304 Edward Fitzgerald Beale 

the winning of the West and the development of 
the Pacific Empire. The Cabinet and the Justices 
of the Supreme Court, the scientists of the Smith- 
sonian and the political leaders were present at the 
simple service of the interment. There came to the 
bereaved family messages from crowned heads, from 
the Courts of St. Petersburg, of Vienna, and of 
Athens, which showed that those who ruled by 
divine right could still recognize the rare quality 
of this leader of men who had come to the front by 
right of personal achievement. 

Sympathetic words there came too from the 
humble and the lowly, from the trapper and the 
scout, from the small farmer and the herder who 
had found life more spacious because of the rich 
domain of Southern California which more than 
any other one man General Beale had opened to 
the crowded East. 

Down on the Tejon Rancho in the San Joaquin 
Valley there still lived two Indians who had fol- 
lowed General Beale across the plains when, in the 
heyday of youth in 1847, with his San Pasqual 
wounds still open, he had carried the news of the 
conquest of California to Washington. These men 
had long outlived their usefulness, they were crip- 
pled by the weight of years and the burden of 
hardships undergone, but the Patron, as they 
called the General, by the most adroit and long 
sustained diplomacy had always succeeded in con- 
vincing them that they could still do a day's work 
with the best and more than earned their rations. 



Last Years 305 

When Raimundo the scout, whom even Carson 
reHed upon, heard the sad news that the wires 
brought with such marvellous rapidity from the 
Capital, he said simply, "I do not care to live any 
longer," dressed himself in his fete-day clothes, 
wrapped his scrape about him, and, stretched out 
upon his blanket in the sunshine outside his adobe 
hut, soon passed from sleep to death. 

Juan Mohafee, the incomparable packer who 
had been charged with the General's mules on 
many a desert journey, was all bustle and excite- 
ment. He told every one that the General would 
want him on the long journey that lay before him, 
longer indeed than any they had ever undertaken 
together. "I will go, too," he said decidedly and 
then with a touch of pride, ' * I may be able to help him, 
he always said I could." Juan continued his active 
preparations for a long journey and when not 
busily engaged in furbishing saddles and oiling 
creaking packs could be found waiting patiently 
under the spreading fig tree outside of the great 
house where he had awaited the coming of the 
Patron so often in the earlier active years, and here 
now his children found him one morning, but his 
body was cold and his faithful soul had fled. 



3o6 Edward Fitzt^erald Beale 



THE FOLLOWING IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF 
GENERAL BEALE'S PUBLIC SERVICES 

Appointed Midshipman in the Navy, from Georgetown College, 
December 14, 1836. 

Ordered to duty on the Independence, the Receiving Ship at Phila- 
delphia, which served at the time as Naval School, in February, 1837. 

Warranted, March, 1839. 

Ordered to the West Indian Squadron, September 19, 1840. 

Ordered to the Naval School, Philadelphia, in August, 1841. 

Commissioned Passed-Midshipman and ordered to Porpoise, August, 
1845. 

Ordered to Frigate Congress as Acting Master, October 2, 1845. 

Returned from Pacific and placed on waiting orders, June 2, 1847. 

Ordered to Fortress Monroe as witness in Colonel Fremont's trial, 
September 29, 1847. 

Commissioned as Master, February 28, 1850. 

Commissioned Lieutenant in Navy, August 3, 1850. 

Resignation from Navy accepted, March 5, 1851- 

Appointed in 1852 b}'^ President Fillmore, Superintendent of Indian 
Aflfairs in California and Nevada. 

In 1857 was appointed by President Buchanan, Superintendent of the 
Wagon-Road Expedition from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to the 
Colorado River. 

In 1858 by President Buchanan to command wagon-route survey 
along 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to California. 

1859-60, in charge of wagon-road construction on central plains. 

1 86 1, appointed by Lincoln, Survevor -General of California and 
Nevada. 

1865, resigned position of Surveyor-General. 

1876, appointed by President Grant, Envoy Extraordinary and Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary. 



INDEX 



Abiquiu, 88 

Acting Master, Commissioned, 5 

Agassiz and the Capiniche, 49 

Albuquerque, 238, 253 

AUston, Lieut., 192 

Amargosa (Bitter Creek), 158, 276 

Ammen, Daniel, Letter from, 48 

Andrassy, Count Jules, 298 

Angosturas, 235 

Antelope Hills, 235 

Antelope Valley, 276 

Apispah River, 76 

Aqua Caliente, Rancho of, 12 

Aqua del Tio Meso, 158 

Aqua del Tomaso, 160 

Aqua Escarbada, 157 

Arapahoe Indians, 73 

Archilete, Felipe, 82, 98 

Archilete's Spring, 158, 287 

Argonauts, the, 276 

Arkansas River, 74, 232 

Armistead, Major, 251 

Army of the Center, the, 10 

Army of New Mexico, the, 262 

Army of the West, the, 10 

Arthur, President, 301 

Artificial Horizon, the, 248 

Aspinwall, Mr., 46 

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

Railroad, 34 
Austrian Rifles for Mexico, 269 
Avonkarea River, 95, 133 



Badeau, General, 270 

Bakersfield, 273, 283 

Baldridge, Sparks & Co., 294 

Ball-haus Platz, 297 

Bancroft, George, 9 

Barnum, P. T., offers to buy 

Beale's gold, 47 
Barrera, Jose de la, 269 
Barrera, Pedro, 269 
Barron, Commodore, 292 



Beale, E. F., Letter from the Raton 
Mountains, 49; description of 
Transcontinental Route, 5 1 ; 
Conspiracy against, 186; Ap- 
pointed Minister to Hungary, 
295; Bravery told by Kit Car- 
son, 30; Letter to the Senate, 
177; Report on the Indians, 1 79 ; 
Recommendations, 185; Letter 
to his children, 274; Letter to 
his wife, 289; Punishes a slan- 
derer, 189; Letter to Governor 
of California, 191; Letter from 
El Paso, 201 ; Journey from Fort 
Smith, 241; Report to Con- 
gress, 211; Journal, 112; 217, 
241 ;Report to Secretary of War, 
230; Faith in California, 59; 
Profits in Transportation, 62; 
near death, 14; meets Pico, 17; 
and Carson go to San Diego, 
21; meets Fremont, 23; appoin- 
ted Superintendent of Indians, 
64 

Beale, George, father, of Edward 
F., i; Medal presented to, 293; 

"Beale's Crossing," 239 

Beall, Col. B. L., 194 

Beall, George, 247 

Benjamin, Judah P., 292 

Benton's Speech, 15; Letter to 
Secretary Mason, 31; Letter to 
Beale, 170, 171, 187 

Bigler, John, 182 

Big Rock, 276 

Bill William's Divide, 213 

Blaine-Grant Feud, 302 

Blaine, James G., 302 

Blake, Major, 79 

Blondin, 255 

Boggy River, 232 

Boone, Daniel, grandfather of Kit 
Carson, 27 

Bonneville Journals, 210 



307 



308 



Index 



Bradford Diary, 209 
Briones, Ramond, 177 
Brown, Richard, 76 

(Dick the Delaware) 
Brown, Thomas, 261 
Buchanan, James, 54 
Buffaloes, first sight of, 71 
Byre, Col. Edward, 192 



Cajon Pass, 164 

California, the rush to, 38; Expedi- 
tion to, 67 

Calif ornians revolt, 1 1 

Callao Harbor, Beale rejoins ship 
at, 7 

Camel Corps, Beale's, 199; tan- 
dem team, 207 

Camels, Arrival of, 201; Beale 
buys, 207 

Canadian River, 232 

Canby, Gen., death of, 195 

" Capitanoes, " 125 

Carnero Pass, 109 

Carson, Kit, Beale meets, 11, 199, 
276, 279; described by Sher- 
man, 27; appointed Lieutenant, 
31; Revenge, 158; Beale's De- 
fence of, 284 

Carson's Ride, Kit, 284 

Cedar Bluffs, 217 

Cedar Citjs Coal found at, 145 

Cerenoquinti, the, 132 

Chandler, Secretary, 301 

Chase, Letter to Secretary, 261, 
264; Letter from, 263 

Chester, Pa., 4, 255, 272 

Cheyenne Indians, 73 

Chico, Anton, 236; death of, 288 

Chihuahua, 143 

Choctaws, the, 253 

Choteau's Trading Post, 234 

Chupainas, 235 

Civil War, Outbreak of the, 251 

Clay, Henry, 292 

Cleveland, Grover, 303 

Clifford, Nathan, Minister to 
Mexico, 45 

Cocomongo Rancho, 166 

Colorado River, 91, no, 221 

Colorado Mountain, 249 

Colton, Rev. Walter, 6; appointed 
Alcalde, 35 

Comanche Indians, 176 

Conchas River, 231 



Congress 44, the, 5, 9, 52 
Constellation, the, 5, 293 
Coochatope Pass, 83 
Coochumpah Pass, 85 
Cordova, Juan, deserts, 128 
Cosgrove, J., 67 
CouncU Grove, 69 
Cuchada, a small stream, 78 



Dallas, George M., 292 

Davis, Jefferson, favors camels, 

200, 206, 255 
Death of General Beale, 303 
Death Valley, 199 
Decatur Mansion, Purchase of, 

291 
Deck and Port, 6 
Diamond of the Desert, 156 
Diaz, President, 271 
Dick, the Delaware, 68, 76, 131, 

163, 241 
District of Columbia, Birthplace 

at, I 
Dolan, Patrick, 82 
Draft Suspended in California, 

258 



Eagle Range, 87 

Edwards, Mary, 53 

Edwards, Samuel, 54 

Elbow Creek, 192 

Eldorado by Bayard Taylor, 58 

Elizabeth Lake, 276 

El Moro, 247 

El Paso, Texas, 201 

Epaiilettes and sword presented 

to Beale, 26 
Executive Documents Nos. 42 

and 124, 208 
Express Charges, 218 



Farraguts, the, 4 

Field, The, 139 

Fillmore, President, 64 

Fitzpatrick, Major, 73 

Floj^d, Dr., 241 

Floyd, Hon. J. B., 202; Letter to, 

217, 241 
Floyd's Peak, 239 
Foote, Senator 46 
Fort Arbuckle, 232 
Fort Atkinson, 73 



Index 



309 



Fort Defiance to the Colorado, 
from, 208 

Fort Leavenworth, Army of the 
West at, 10 

Fort Smith, Ark., to the Colorado, 
208, 231, 233, 253 

Fort Tejon, 206, 227 

Fort Yuma, 213, 228 

Four Creeks, 147 

France and Lower California, 262 

Frank Murray's Peak, 226 

Franklin, Sir John, 54 

Fremont, 11, 159, 170, 276; Me- 
moirs, quoted, 22; description 
of Grand River, 91 

French Invasion, 266 



Gadsden Purchase, the, 262 

Gallengo, Jose, 121, 150 

Garcia, Jesus, 68, 82 

General Jesup, steamer, 228 

Georgetown College, Beale 
attends, 3 

Germantown, Sloop of War, 45 

Gillespie, Captain, 12 

Grand River, 87, 90, 128 

Grant, General, 270; Letters to 
Beale, 299; death at Mt. Mc- 
Gregor, 299 

Grant in Peace, by Badeau, 270 

Gregorio, Interpreter, 193 

Grizzly bears, 165 

Godey, Alexis, the Scout, 13, 287; 
Revenge, 158 

Gold, Beale brings first, 43 ; placed 
on Exhibition, 47 

Greenbank, Home at, 4, 47 

Green River Fork, 134 

Grinnell, Henry, 54 

Guadalajara, 44 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of, 
251, 261 

Guaymas, Port of, 262 

Gum Spring, 251 

Gunnison, Col. J. W., 172 



Harmony, Rear- Admiral, 6, 62 

Harper's Weekly, 284 

Harry Edwards' Mountain, 239 

Hawkins Gun, 287 

Heap, Gwinn Harris, Journal by, 

67; continues Journal, 122 
Heath, Lieutenant, 70 



Herbert, Secretary, 301 
Hitchcock, Gen. E. A., Letter 

from, 167, 182 
Hoffman, Col., 250 
Howards Spring, 218 
Hue's, Abbe, Travels in China and 

Tartary, 199, 216 
Hudson, Mr., 274 
Huerfano Butte, 77 
Huerfano River, 76 



Indian Creek, 68, 79 

Indian Murders, 218; herders, 272; 
Marksmanship, 119; Horse rac- 
ing, 120 

Indian Territory, 232 

Indianola, Texas, 201 

Indians, taunted by the, 129 

Inscription Rock, 241 

Jnsurgente, Frigate, 293 



Jackson, Andrew, first meeting 

with Beale, 3 
Jackson, Lieutenant, 79 
Jacksonians, Beale's Battle for 

the, 2 
James, Col., 265 
Jaroso Creek, 87 
Jay, John, 296 
Johnson, Captain, 13, 228 
Johnson, Major, 73 
Jones, Catesby, 48 
Jones, Commodore, 52; Report 

by, 36; Caricatured by Beale, 

39 

Jones, William Carey, 45 
Jordan, Captain, 168 
Jornada, first, 155 
Jourdan, Negro Slave, 294 
Juarez Government, 263, 295 



Kane, Expedition, the, 54 

Kanzas, 67 

Kearny, Colonel, 10, 276; attacked 

by Calif ornians, 13 
Kerlin, F. E., 227 
King River Reservation, 193 



Laguna, Crossing the, 89 
Lagunas, Timber of the, 236 
La Paz, Port of, 262 



310 



Index 



La Sierra del Aquila, 87 

Las Vegas de Santa Clara, 99, 
147; Mormons at, 133, 138 

Latrobe, Architect, 291 

Lee, Captain, 218 

Leiper, George G., 54 

Leiper, Samuel L., 54 

Lente, Juan, 97 

Leroux, Antoine, 70, 74, 82, in 

Lewis & Clark, 210 

Liberals of Mexico, 271 

Liebre Rancho, 277 

Lincoln appoints Beale Surveyor 
General, 208, 256; Beale's Let- 
ter to President, 259; joke of, 
277 

Little Axe, 241 

Little Colorado River, 238 

Little Rock, 253 

Little Salt Lake Valley, 138, 276 

Livingston, Lieutenant, 192 

Loeser, Lieutenant, 40 

Lopez, Don Chico, 290 

Los Angeles Papers, extract from, 
205 

Los Angeles, Valley of, 164; Arrival 
at, 167 

"Lost Mountains," 283 

Lower California, Peninsula of, 
261 

Lynch, Judge, 285 

Lynch, W. F., letter from, 56 



McDonough, Commodore, i 

McDowell, General, 275 

McKee, Agent, Criticism by, 184 

Madrid, Gregorio, 68 

Magruder, Dr., 80 

Maria, Brig. Beale takes passage 
in the, 6 

Marysville Stage, the, 62 

Mason, Colonel, 41 

Mason, Secretary of Navy, 31 

Massachusetts, Fort, 79 

Matamoras, Taylor at, 10 

Maury, M. F., letter from, 58 

Maximilian, Emperor, 270, 295 

Mazatlan, Mexico, 42 

Mediterranean, Cruise to the, 5 

Mes, Ramon, 177 

Methodist Mission at Council 
Grove, 69 

Mexican Revolution, 261; Fron- 
tier Lines, 266 



Mexico, Situation in, 9; War 

with, 10 
Miller, Joaquin, 284 
Mobile Register, the, quoted, 32 
Modocs, treatment of, 195 
Mohafer, Juan, death of, 305 
Mohave Plains, 283 
Mohaveh River, 141, 162 
Mohaves, the, 250 
Monroe, Captain, 13 
Monterey, Mexico, 277 
Mormon Settlements, 99 
Mosquitoes, Sufferings from, 94 
Mount Benton, 224 
Mount Buchanan, 224 
Mountain Sheep, 85 
Murieta, Joaquin, 279 



Namaquasitch, Camp at, 103 
National Intelligencer, the, 171 
National Republican League, 

Beale President of, 294 
Navajoes, 248 
Navy, Interest in the, 295 
Navy, Application to enter the, 3 
Neosha, town of, 237 
Nordhoflf, Charles, 278; Dedicates 

book to Beale, 278 
North Fork Town, 232 



Ohio, the, 5, 38 
Ojo del Gaetan, 155 
Ojo Pescado Spring, 247 
Otterby, Charles, no 
Otterby, Thomas, no 
Owen's River, 147 



Pah-Utahs, the. 138, 147; Chil- 
dren of, 141; Horse thieves, 147; 
Billingsgate, 156 

Palo Alto, Battle of, 10 

Paragoona, 138 

Parawan, 139 

Pareamoot Mountains, 91 

Paredes Army, 43 

Patron, the, 283 

Pawnee Fork of the Arkansas, 73 

"Pawnee Rock, " 73 

Payute Wheat, 154 

Pecos, 235 

Philadelphia Press, quoted, 54, 
251,260 



Index 



311 



Pico, Don Andres, 14 

Piegan, the, Massacre, 196 

Pike's Peak, 76 

Pinole, 113 

Pioneers' Library, Destroyed by 

fire, 257 
"Pite," 156 

Polk, President, 31, 261 
Polly, Aunt, and the Wonderful 

Coat, 4 
Polygamy among the Mormons, 

146 
Poor, Ben Perley, 301 
Porpoise, the, 5 
Porter, David Dixon, 200 
Porters, the, 4 
Poteau Creek, 232, 253 
Powers, Jack, 279 



Queretaro, Battles of, 271 

Raimundo, death of, 305 
Republican, Letter in the, 195 
Resaca de la Palma, 10 
Rich, Paymaster, 37 
Riggs, Elisha, 67, 70 
Riggs, William, 67, 74 
Rio Atascoso, 153 
Rio Hondo (Deep Creek), no 
Rio de la Cibolos, 85 
Rio de la Laguna, 89 
Rio de la Virgen, III, 151 
Rio de las Gallinas, 233 
Rio del Moro, the, 136 
Rio del Norte, 83, 238 
Robbers, Trouble with, 275 
Robinson, Lieutenant, 70 
Rodgers, Raymond, 49, 80 
Rogers, William, 67 
Rosemire, Jimmy, 289 
Roubindeau's Pass, 78 
Rucker, Major, 70 



Sacramento, Camp in the Val- 
ley of the, 22 

Sacramento, 214 

Sah watch Creek, 83, 107; Valley ^ 
83; Mountains, 123 

St. Louis Republican quoted, 253 

St. Vrain, Mr., in 

Salado, the Camp on, 137 

Salinas, the, 268 

Salt Spring Gold Mines, 158 



San Antonio, Camels start from, 
202 

San Bernardino, 14, 147, 165 

San Bois, 232 

San Felipe, 233 

San Francisco fire, 257; Mountain, 
239; News-Letter quoted 296; 
papers, Interview by, 276 

Sangre de Cristo Pass, 77; Moun- 
tains, 77 

San Joaquin River, 23; Valley, 
279 

San Luis Valley, 78, 83 

San Pasqual, Battle of, 13, 293 

San Pedro, 165 

San Rafael, 136 

Santa Ana Creek, 1 64 

Santa Fe, Capture of , 10; 254 

Savoya, Valley of the, 117 

Schoenbrunn, Breakfast at, 299 

Scott, General, 263 

Scott Valley, Massacre at, 190 

Scribner's Magazine, quoted, 299 

Sebastian, Senator, Speech by, 
176 

Secession, 257 

Secret Mission, 6 

Seward, Secretary, 270 

Seymour, Admiral, 8 

Shasta, Massacres at, 190 

Shepherds in California, 281 

Sheridan, General, 270 

Sherman, General W. T., 27 

Sierra Mojada, 75, 80 

Sierra Nevada, 227 

Simms, George, 68, 98 

Sixty Years of the National Metro- 
polis, 301 

SkuUyville, 253 

Slave freed by Beale, 294 

Smith, Col. G. A., 142 

Smith's Narrative, 209 

Snyder, Jake, 24 

Sonora, Mexico, 143, 264 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 283 

Spiller, Dr., 241 

Spring of Uncle Meso, 158 

Stockton, Cahfomia, 214 

Stockton, Commodore, 7, 276; 
sends Beale to Washington, 26; 
Engages in business, 60 

Stockton-Fremont-Kearny Con- 
troversy, 12 

Supply, Store Ship, 200 

Sutter Discovers Gold, 36 



><r 



312 



Index 



Taos, San Fernando de, 81, 100, 
III 

Taylor, Bayard, Letter from, 58, 
288; Dedicates book to Beale, 
278 
Taylor, General, 10 
Tehatchapie Pass, 283 
Tejon Rancho, 272 
Thompson, Smith, Letter from, 2 
Thorburn, Lieut., 216, 222 
"Three- fingered" Jack, 279 
Trinity River Massacre, 184 
Truxtun, Commodore, i, 4; Pre- 
sented with Silver Urn, 293; 
Truxtun, Emily, Mother of Ed- 
ward F. Beale, i 
Tulare Lake, 275 
Tulare Valley, 147, 214 
Tule River Reservation, 282 
Turkey Creek, 70 
Turner, Captain, 13 



TJncompagre River, 90, 121 

Upshur, Rcar-Admiral, 6 

Utah Creek, 80 

Utahs, Murders by the, 88; Meet- 
ing with the, 104; Trouble with 
the, 127 



Vallejo, 182 

Van Buren, Martin, 292 



Vega, General Placido, Letter 

from, 266, 268 
Vega Quintana, 155 
Vera Cruz, 45 
Vicksburg, Grant at, 270 
Visalia, 277; Rising at, 190 



Wagner, J., 67 

Walkah, Indian Chief, 142; De- 
clares War, 142 

Walker, Joe, 143 

Walker's Pass, 143 

"Wanderer" writes to Philadel- 
phia Press, 251 

Washita Valley, 234 

West Indies, Cruise to, 5 

Westport, Mo., the Start from, 67 

"What Cheer" House, 300 

Whig Leaders, Council of the, 263 

Whipple, Lieut., 240 

White Squadron, the, 302 

Whitney, Secretary, 301 

Willow Creek, 87 

Wilson, Mr., Indian Agent, 166 

Winchester Mountains, 251 

Wool, General, 10, 191 



Young, Brigham, 139 
Young, Henry, 67, 132 



Zuni, 212, 238, 247 



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